Technique as empowerment: Dispute resolution forums for older people in India

Abstract

In India, various forums address intergenerational disputes involving older people and their adult children. Familial disputes arise due to fraudulent property transactions and/or abuse and neglect of older parents by children. While litigation is an option for older people, mediation and conciliation are considered a more suitable, age-friendly approach by law. There are maintenance tribunals, non-governmental organisations and alternative dispute resolution forums that assist and enable older people to assert their rights. Through an ethnographic study of three such forums and an analysis of complaint letters and orders from authorities, the article analyses the different techniques of dispute resolution. By framing “law as technique,” the article critically examines the methods of dispute resolution independent of the context of their occurrence and the goals it accomplishes/sets out to achieve. The techniques that are discussed in this article craft new legal subjectivities of older people that are empowering in nature, though with some limitations.