prasad1
Active member
According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 31 million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs and PIOs) residing outside India. Every one of these NRIs with elderly parents back home in India is aware of that familiar feeling of constant worry lurking at the back of their minds, added to a lingering sense of guilt for having left them behind.
As families shrink, support systems vanish and children get busy with careers in faraway lands, parents are left with large houses that pose a security threat, or in apartments with cantankerous housing societies and neighbours. When thousands of Indians emigrate each year for higher education, lucrative jobs or a better lifestyle, they leave behind, either knowingly or unknowingly, their biggest treasure -- their elderly parents with broad smiles and cheerful exteriors, who hide behind their moist eyes untold stories of loneliness, anxiety, fear and uncertainty that they would rather not tell their children several hours of travel time away.
Apart from the loneliness and the anxiety of being separated, in times of illness and emergencies, even simple chores like going to the bank, standing in a queue for a gas cylinder or paying a bill becomes a challenge, going to the doctor or a dentist becomes an ordeal.
Emotional support in the form of frequent phone and video calls is necessary to make up for their absence. They should encourage parents to become members of organizations like NRIPA and APIRO, for a sense of belonging while spending time with like-minded people.
According to the State of World Population report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India’s population in 2019 was 1.36 billion, with 6% -- 81.6 million -- of age 65 years and above. The Indian joint family system is almost extinct; innumerable seniors are living alone, or with caregivers in old-age homes. This number will only grow, with more and more of them requiring old-age homes, caregivers, emotional support and continuous handholding.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinio...et-years-with-sons-settled-abroad-797233.html
As families shrink, support systems vanish and children get busy with careers in faraway lands, parents are left with large houses that pose a security threat, or in apartments with cantankerous housing societies and neighbours. When thousands of Indians emigrate each year for higher education, lucrative jobs or a better lifestyle, they leave behind, either knowingly or unknowingly, their biggest treasure -- their elderly parents with broad smiles and cheerful exteriors, who hide behind their moist eyes untold stories of loneliness, anxiety, fear and uncertainty that they would rather not tell their children several hours of travel time away.
Apart from the loneliness and the anxiety of being separated, in times of illness and emergencies, even simple chores like going to the bank, standing in a queue for a gas cylinder or paying a bill becomes a challenge, going to the doctor or a dentist becomes an ordeal.
Emotional support in the form of frequent phone and video calls is necessary to make up for their absence. They should encourage parents to become members of organizations like NRIPA and APIRO, for a sense of belonging while spending time with like-minded people.
According to the State of World Population report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India’s population in 2019 was 1.36 billion, with 6% -- 81.6 million -- of age 65 years and above. The Indian joint family system is almost extinct; innumerable seniors are living alone, or with caregivers in old-age homes. This number will only grow, with more and more of them requiring old-age homes, caregivers, emotional support and continuous handholding.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinio...et-years-with-sons-settled-abroad-797233.html