Life Of The Middleclass Aged In Kolkata (ePub)

Instead of blaming the younger generation for the "uncared", lonely, deserted, suffering elderly, as is done in most of the literature and the media, the present book portrays the life of the middleclass aged in Kolkata in the light of changing family relations in the changing urban social space. The book explores the social processes through which the present generation of the elderly population travels from multi-generational big households to singlemember households and reach a stage when the family care system breaks down. The rationalization of family size through fertility control, the growing life expectancy, the ever-growing spatial movement of the younger generation often leave the middleclass elderly alone. This land the urban middleclass greying population in a serious care crisis, unheard of before, a making of their own, and they try to make manifold adjustments to cope with it. They often move into a house close to their married daughter's house, visit their sons/daughters who have settled down in a distant city, within or outside the country, cement the conjugal relationship stronger, hire the services of domestic help, use modern gadgets to keep in close touch with their child/children on line, and so on. When all these efforts fail, they move to old age homes in search of care and security.The will to live and live a good life never dies.