Past GT essay - Nowadays, fewer people tend to look after their old relatives and send them to some old age homes. What is the situation in your country? In your opinion, who should be responsible to look after the elderly?

Demographic trends suggest that we are heading towards a graying society and it is the bitter truth of today that that children are sending their elderly parents to live separately in old age homes. Fortunately, in my country, India, the old-age homes are still in their infancy. Ideally, the children should look after their elderly. However, I have strong arguments to suggest that the elderly should live separately in old-age homes.

The ideal situation would be that the elderly should be looked after by their children. Parents spend their whole life toiling hard to provide the best to their children and now it is the children’s turn to pay back. It is their moral responsibility to look after their parents. However, it has been seen that most elderly are leading miserable lives with their children. They are leading isolated lives amidst their family members and that is why I firmly believe that they should live separately.

My first argument is that living separately will give them a feeling of independence. Moreover, by doing so, they will command more respect in the eyes of their children. It is irrefutable that relationships become strong and meaningful when people are not under the same roof. Hence, if aged people are away from their children physically, both will be closer to each other emotionally.

What is more, the mushroom growth of old age homes is ample evidence that they are a boon for the society. They give the opportunity to the elderly to be in the comfort of people of similar age and experience. They also remain healthy with timely day-to-day activities. In such homes, the elderly also get a chance to do some social service activities which in turn help the society.

Furthermore, the culture of the old age homes tends to refine some attitudes of the aged such as short temper and negative thinking. Old age homes are also a boon for those elderly who face social isolation in their own homes where their so-called loved ones neglect them badly and have no time for them.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that, the elderly should live with people of their own age group, in old age homes, where they enjoy the retired period of their life nicely, comfortably and productively