Perception and Cognition about Ageing
Elderly Persons in Displaced Families in Medinipur, West Bengal

Md. Basar Ali & Abhijit Guha

Paper presented at the conference Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction: Lessons From Eastern India, 25-27 September 2001

By Md. Basar Ali, Junior Research Officer (India part) Social Development Research Capacity Project (SDRC)
And Abhijit Guha, Reader Deptartment of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Paschim Medinipore, West Bengal, India.
Research conducted by: Centre For Development Studies, University Of Swansea, U.K. and Institute For Socio-Economic Development, Bhubaneswar,Orissa, India.
Funded by: Department For International Development (DFID), U.K.

 

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Contents

Introduction
Methodology
Findings
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References


Introduction

The literature on development induced displacement and rehabilitation focuses on the impact of displacement on vulnerable groups, viz. tribals, women, landless persons, common property resource users, and children. But there is hardly any study that explore experiences of old persons during and after development-induced displacement. Also, while there is much literature on ageing (Tibbits 1960, Desai and Siva 2000, Mahajan 1987, Adiseshiah 1982, Amarjit 1982, Barge and Bella 1994, Bhatia 1964, Biswas 1985, Chakraborty 1993, Chopra 1989), there is none on cognition about ageing in rural areas.

We have studied the socio-cultural condition of old persons in two rural settings suffering from the trauma of losing their homes and/or agricultural land. The study looks at general issues on ageing related to cognition about aging through interviews using an open-ended questionnaire schedules and makes specific policy recommendations.

Methodology

This study was conducted in Medinipur district in West Bengal where rural populations have been affected by land acquisition for industries: Kolaghat where displacement has resulted due to the establishment of Kolaghat Thermal Power Station (KTPS) in the late 1970s and Kharagpur where agricultural land has been acquired for two pig iron manufacturing industries. Forty-four persons above 60 years were interviewed and observed in 2001. Of these, 14 belonged to the Kolaghat area while 30 to the Kharagpur region. Tribals, Hindu castes and Muslim old people made up the sample population.

Findings

Table 1

Age Sex Composition of the Old Persons in the Sample:

Age group

Male

Female

Total
N=44(%)

60 – 64

9

7

16 (36.36)

65 – 69

5

5

10 (22.73)

70 – 74

2

8

10 (22.73)

75 – 79

5

1

6 (13.64)

80 +

1

1

2 (4.54)

Grand total

22 (50.00%)

22 (50.00%)

44 (100.00)

We collected data from 44 individuals aged between 60-80 years. Most of the men are over 65 years and persons (men and women) between 70 – 80 years and above constitute 40.91 per cent of the sample. We found only two women above 74 years of age in our sample.

Table 2

Perception About Old Age Among the Respondents:

Sl. Nos.

An old person is one

Number of respondents who have mentioned these characteristics

Percent out of total (N=44)

1.

Who cannot walk in an erect posture

13

29.54

2.

Whose ability to work has decreased

30

68.18

3.

Whose teeth have fallen

13

29.54

4.

Whose power of vision has declined

21

47.73

5.

Whose skin shows wrinkles

14

31.82

6.

Whose memory has worsened

4

9.09

7.

Whose hair has become grey

19

43.18

8.

Who cannot hear well

2

4.54

9.

Who suffers from illness

6

13.64

When asked with the questions (i) ‘who are old’ and (ii) ‘what are the signs of old age’ the respondents came up with at least nine types of answers, which are arranged in this table. Old age for our informants is a multidimensional phenomenon. However reduction in the ability to work achieved the highest response figure (68.18%).

Contrary to expectations, aged persons in rural areas rarely retire from their work.

Table 3

Types of tasks performed by Old Men and Women in the sample:

Sl. No.

Types of Tasks

Number of persons

Percent out of total (%)

M

F

T

1.

Agriculture

3

1

4

9.09

2.

Grazing cattle

3

6

9

20.45

3.

Guarding and looking after the house

5

5

10

22.73

4.

Selling of vegetable

2

0

2

4.54

5.

Carrying food to agricultural fields

0

2

2

4.54

6.

Procuring fooder for domestic animals

3

2

5

11.36

7.

Preparation and repair of implements

1

0

1

2.27

8.

Looking after small children

5

14

19

43.18

9.

Household work

8

12

20

45.45

10.

Cultivation in the homestead land

3

2

5

11.36

11.

Performing religious rituals and rites

1

1

2

4.54

12.

Settlement of village disputes

3

0

3

6.82

Table 3 shows that doing work in an agrarian context involves a variety of tasks including housework, cattle grazing, cultivation, selling vegetables, etc. An old person in an agricultural society is an active and economically productive component of the population.

Table 4

Types of work done by Old Age Persons:

Age Group

Types of work done

Male

Female

60 – 64

Household work, looking after small children, performing religious rituals and rites, selling of vegetables, grazing cattle, settlement of village disputes, agriculture.

Household work, carrying food to agricultural field. Grazing cattle, looking after small children etc. Feeding of the domestic cattle.

65 – 69

Household work, procuring fodder for domestic animal, guarding and looking after the house, selling of vegetable, preparation and repair of implements, cultivation in the homestead land.

Household work, guarding and looking after the house, looking after small children, grazing cattle, household work, feeding of the domestic cattle.

70 – 74

Household work, guarding and looking after the house, settlement of village disputes, looking after small children, cultivation in the homestead land.

Household work, grazing cattle, looking after small children, guarding and looking after the house. Feeding of the domestic cattle.

75 – 79

Guarding and looking after the house, household work, grazing cattle, selling of vegetable, looking after small children.

Household work looking after small children guarding and looking the house.

80+

Household work, settlement of village disputes, looking after small children.

Household work looking after small children, guarding and looking after the house.

The age group wise distribution of types of work done by the old age persons in the sample shows the variety of tasks done by them in more detail. It shows a gradual decline of the variety of works done by the old age persons as one moves up in the age ladder. But older persons do not stop working even when they are over 80 years old.

Table 5

Perception of the necessity of the Old persons in Family and Society:

Sl. No.

Old persons are needed because

Number of respondents:

Percent out of total (N=44)

Male

(N=22)

Female

(N=22)

Total

1.

They look after the house

15

68.18

6

27.27

21

47.73

2.

They look after the children

5

22.73

12

54.54

17

38.64

3.

They guard the house

10

45.45

6

27.27

16

36.36

4.

They give useful advice

7

31.82

5

22.73

12

27.27

5.

They know lot

7

31.82

4

18.18

11

25.00

6.

They help a lot in religious rituals

9

40.91

3

13.64

12

27.27

7.

They help in the settlement of disputes

6

27.27

0

0

6

13.64

In Table 5 we look at the perceptions of a member of the families of the surveyed old person. Their families recognise their importance in looking after the house, to provide useful advice (nearly 28 per cent) and as reservoirs of knowledge.

Other interesting observations about displacement and the problems of the elderly people in our sample households are:

1. Some aged persons reported that there was a break up of the family after being displaces. Displacement has worsened the quality of their food in the family.

2. Many old persons said that their health has deteriorated after displacement.

Conclusions

This research has some implications for research and policy:

1. In a rural society old people remain economically and socially active.

2. There is scope for more research in the sphere of the cognition about aging.

3. Policy implications of this study:

a) There is a difference in the way that old age is experienced in rural and urban areas. In rural areas instead of pensions to old persons, the government should involve them in economic activities against payment.

b) Older members in rural areas can be utilised by gram panchayats in village development plans and settling village level disputes.

4. Since older members suffer displacement as intensely as younger ones, special rehabilitation measures should be adopted by the government for them.

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Tapan Burman, Bhakti Prasad Giri and Pradip Roy Mahapatra who have collected the field data in the villages of Kolaghat and Kharagpur area in Medinipur district. We are also grateful to the organisers of the International Workshop on Social Development Research Capacity held during 25-27 September at Bhubaneswar, Orissa for giving us the chance to present this paper. We also thank Dr. Satish Agnihotri for giving us some useful methodological suggestions on the paper when it was presented in the Bhubaneswar Workshop by the first author.


References

Books:

C. Tibbits (ed.) (1960)
Handbook of Social Gerontology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 165-270.

Census of India (1991)
Ageing population of India: an analysis of the 1991 census data, Chapter – I, Registrar general, India, New Delhi

D. Desai and R. Siva (2000)
Gerontological social work in India, New Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.

Mahajan. A (1987)
Problems of the aged in unorganized sector, Delhi: Mital publication, pp.106

Articles:

Adiseshiah, Malcom S (1982)
"The Elderly: Still Contributing" in Social Welfare, 29 (1); pp. 9-1.

Amarjit (1982)
"Old Age can be Existing or Depessing" in Social Welfare, 29 (1); Apr; pp. 3-4

Barge, Sandhya; Patl, Bella C M E (1994)
"Old Age security in a changing employment environment" in Social change; 24 (3 & 4); pp. 166-179

Bhatia, H S (1964)
"Rural Social Change and the Problem of the Aged" in Social Welfare; 11 (4); Jul; pp. 5-6.

Biswas, SK (1985)
"Dependency and Family care of the Aged in Village India: A case Study" in Journal of the Indian anthropological society; 20 (30) pp.238-257

Chackrabarti, Prafulla (1993)
"Perception of old-age problems in Rural Nadia, Ageing and society" in The Indian journal of gerontology; 3 (4); pp.1-24

Chopra, RM (1989)
"Ageing in India: need of a developmental Approach" in Social Welfare; 36 (5); Aug; pp. 31-32