Elderly Abuse in Rural and Urban Areas of Guntur District - A Comparative Study

Abstract

Beautiful old people are works of art!". There is still time for us to help the 'art' that is our beautiful elders” said by Eleanor Roosevelt. Elder abuse is a term referring to any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by a care-given or any other person that causes harm or a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult. Therefore, we can say that mistreatment by the care given to the elderly is a normal thing or phenomenon as the family structure is changed from a joint to a nuclear family. There is no space for elderly people in the family. They are considered a burden and useless, which results, in ignorance of the elderly. According to the 2011 Census, there are 104 million elderly persons (aged 60 years or above) in India. The proportion of the elderly was 8.6% in 2011 and is rising. Also, the average Indian can expect to live at least 18 years beyond the age of 60, which means the dependency ratio is also rising. In this connection since the elderly abuse is a burning topic there is a great need in studying and knowing the problems of elderly, types of elderly abuse and features of elderly abuse etc. An attempt is made in this paper to Examining the socioeconomic and demographic profiles of respondents of the age of abuse and analysis of responses of elderly people on different types of abuse faced in the study area.