Respect for Old People in Society

Group E-14

Introduction

Indians have had a long-standing tradition of caring and providing for their elderly. Usually, the family
takes care of the elder members. However, there has been a gradual decline from the joint family system
towards the nuclear family system. This has led to the elderly being emotionally neglected and in need of
physical and financial assistance. Even when they are living with their children, the elderly are considered
to be a burden on the family as their contribution to the familial income is very little and the expenses
related to old age are very high.

This is a cause for concern in the Indian context especially because we have a steadily rising population
of senior citizens; from 2 crore citizens above the age of 60 in 1951, we had 5.7 crore in 1991, and 7.6
crore in 2001. Improvement in lifestyle and health-care infrastructure has meant an increase in life
expectancy from 29 years in 1951 to 63 years in 2001; it is only projected to be higher at 19.8 crore in
2030. This combined with the decline of the joint family values spoken about earlier add to the worrying
prospect of lack of respect for elders in India.

“Ageism” is a type of discrimination that deals with stereotypes regarding old age and old people. It is
prevalent in modern society but in varying degrees across age groups, income levels, locations,
ethnicities etc. The media has a very influential role to play in the spread of this phenomenon. Our society
in general is obsessed with wanting to look young and “wrinkle-free” as advertisers dub it. We are
constantly in pursuit of the fountain of youth, something that marketers have caught on to and are milking.

Like other forms of discrimination, it is passed down from previous generations to the next one. What is
peculiar to this form of discrimination, however, is that the discriminators will also be discriminated against
eventually, as “old age” is a condition that every person living to an age beyond 60 must go through. This
is exactly why it is startling that such a negative attitude towards elderly exists at all.

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to attempt to change the attitude of disrespect towards the elderly that
exists in the Indian society. This change in attitude must manifest itself in a long-term change in behavior.

The process we have followed is enlisted below:

1. Understand the underlying reasons/justifications given for an attitude of disrespect towards the elderly,
2. Identify the segment that should be targeted to change this attitude,
3. How this change should be brought about, and
4. What factors will measure the success of this initiation of change.

Segmentation
For the purpose of this assignment, we chose to segment the Indian population according to age groups,
as attitudes across age groups differ a great deal in tone and intensity. In addition, certain age groups are
more pliable to incorporate a change in mindset, which then manifests itself into long-term behavioral
change, which is our objective.
From secondary research, we considered a study on ageism that depicts the arrays of attitudes of the
different age groups towards the elderly. The study considers four different age groups: schoolchildren (0-
14), adolescents (14-20), adults (21-59) and the elderly (60+). The research is on the development of
stereotypes about the old people, i.e., how people of different ages evaluate old people, from school age
through adolescence and adulthood to the senior age group. We considered a rating table for identifying
the underlying attitudes/reasons of the age groups towards each other. The 10 items of the rating table
constitutes two scales, the warmth scale and the competence scale. The warmth scale consists of the
following five items: 1. Friendly, 2. Irritating, 3. Has a good sense of humor, 4. Good-hearted, 5. Selfish.
The items of the competence scale are: 6. Can help other people, 7. Have difficulties in understanding
things, 8. Is successful in his/her tasks, 9. Have good manual skills, 10. Requires help of others.

From the graph below, it is evident that school children have rated the elderly even lower on both
dimensions as compared to adolescents and adults, which indicates a purely negative stereotype towards
old people. Thus, school children display the most negative attitudes towards old people. The reasons
could be that they are more anxious when near to the elderly because of less familiarity or consider them
least helpful and competent in their daily life.

From a developmental point of view, this may imply that over time, initially divergent and biased
evaluations of different age clusters transform into more convergent and generally neutral attitudes
towards people of various ages. Thus, one remedy against ageism could be to get old (let nature take its
course). The distribution of age population in India can be seen in the table below. The school children
forms a major part of India’s population and going forward will be the most important segment which
should be tapped positively with a view to cause behavioral change towards the elderly.
 Not communicate Communicate
regularly regularly
  AAS   AAS
AAS 1 AAS 1
FSA 0.469 FSA -0.23
  FSA   FSA
FSA 1 FSA 1
OP -0.078 OP 0.204
  OP   OP
OP 1 OP 1
AAS -0.244 AAS -0.443

From the primary research conducted in the IIM Ahmedabad student community comprising of students of
age group 22-27, it has been found that people communicating regularly with people above age group of
65 show less anxiety about getting old and also empathize with the old. But, it has also been observed
that they develop negative attitude towards the old people. As shown above, people communicating
regularly are less anxious about getting old as anxiety scores are negatively correlated (-0.23) to ageism
(FSA scores). But their attitude scores are positively correlated (0.204) to ageism supporting the fact that
they develop negative attitude due to association. Whereas people not communicating with old people
have high positive correlation (0.47) to ageism which highlights the importance of feeling of anxiety
towards old driving discrimination towards elderly in this segment.

Grown with
Nuclear family elderly
  AAS   AAS
AAS 1 AAS 1
FSA 0.462 FSA -0.242
  FSA   FSA
FSA 1 FSA 1
OP 0.002 OP 0.206
  OP   OP
OP 1 OP 1
AAS -0.437 AAS -0.044
Also, people who had grown around elderly people are less anxious and more knowledgeable about
elderly people and hence show negative correlation to ageism (-0.242) compared to children grown in
nuclear families who show positive correlation (0.46) between ageism and anxiety of growing old. But
people who grew around elderly people developed attitude which drive them towards ageism as shown by
positive correlation (0.206) of attitude of this segment to ageism scores (FSA score)

Segment selected

0-14 15 - 21 21 - 59 60 and above

Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban
33.9 27.2 9.7 10.2 48.8 55.3 7.6 7.3

From Secondary data and primary data has been identified that the major target segment is the
population under age of 14. We can expect long-term association, high level of representation in the total
population and ease of access via medium of education.
Also these segments may be further divided based on their expose towards old people as it is expected
that children in rural areas are more associated with old people due to joint families unlike those living in
urban areas because of nuclear family structure.

My (Aditya) view:
Granted that children are one of the important segments to be targeted. But its outcome will be in the long
run. My guess is that the first question the Prof will ask is: why do you think there is an increase in people
disrespecting old people when in working class (21-59)? Why did you not target them? Harsha said
something about the ratio being low. My point is old people depend on working class for their everyday
needs. These should be our primary targets. The old people won’t mind that much if the grandson is a
brat but will mind it if the son is one. Sure, the kids can be targeted using the methods below. But it’ll be
useful when they are in working age class.
Suggestion:
In the very first class, the Prof suggested that always target the person’s emotions. In fact, he said that
wrt Garima (Coke vs Pepsi). Hence, I think we should suggest an emotional ad campaign to target
working class while working on the below suggestions with the children. This will ensure long-term and
short-term benefit with the emotional thing he insists on. There are a few excellent ads by Cadbury/Pepsi
out there. I think we should suggest something on similar lines. Hell… we can even play these ads in
class or tag them in PPT/report. Please go through these once:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSD0LR3tm8
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ7lMDWJOXA

Comments please guys

NOT EDITED BEYOND THIS POINT

Current Scenario

The Government of India has tried to legally bind family members to take care of their elders. Most
personal laws (such as the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956) recognize the right of senior
citizens to be provided with familial care, and the duty of family members to provide the same. The elderly
even have an option to take their children to court if they feel such maintenance is not being taken care of
(Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973), but this provision is rarely used by the former out of
love and affection for the latter.

To tackle this problem better, the Government enacted the Maintenance and Welfare for Parents and
Senior Citizens Act in 2007 “to provide for more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of
parents and senior citizens guaranteed and recognized under the Constitution and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto.” Some states have already implemented this act, and others are in the
process of doing so.

Under this act, children (and legal heirs) are obligated to provide for their elderly parents’ maintenance by
way of a monthly allowance. If such monthly allowance is not provided, any property bequeathed to heir
“is said to have been obtained by coercion” thus making the transfer of property “Null and void”. This Act
thus makes it possible for the elderly to claim such monthly allowance in a speedy and inexpensive
manner, which in turn protects the life and property of senior citizens.

While this Act provides legal recourse for neglected senior citizens, in our opinion, it does nothing to
change the negative attitude towards such senior citizens. What is required is a change in the general
public mindset, which would render the need for such acts useless.
 Value Proposition
For the target segment of the school going children, we could have several value propositions for
increasing the respect for the elderly in the society. Some of the added values for this segment are:
1.       Gain in knowledge
2.       Gain in Experiential learning
3.       Maturity of thinking
4.       Better connect with the society
5.       Networking opportunities
Gain in knowledge:
The school going children will be able to make use of the knowledge of the elderly to increase their
horizon. Some of the factors that can contribute to this gain are the knowledge about the various topics
viz. Historical, Political, Literary, Music, etc.
A school going child has the need for increasing his knowledge and to appear better placed than his
peers. A close interaction with the elderly in his family or his society will make him more equipped to be
able to talk and express his views about the several factors related to his environment and the society in
general.
An example for the same can be the knowledge of bands and music like that of Pink Floyd, America and
The Who amongst  others of the older generation. Everyone does in general get to know of these music
sometime later in their life, but an interaction with the elderly on a regular basis will expose the children to
these earlier.
Also, there are many facets of the history, the politics of India, and the literary domain that without the
guidance of someone, children usually have to experience all the different options to gain knowledge. The
boom in internet has definitely made it easier for everyone to have an opinion on topics and books with
the help of online reviews, but it is better to have the same learning from someone who has already
experienced it. The elderly could impart knowledge about the freedom struggle of India through a first
person lens, or maybe the closed economic phase and the emergency period of India. These topics are
generally not covered in the books, and even though they could be found online, they do not paint the
complete picture of the scenarios at the said time.
There are several literary works, out of which only a few have gotten classified as the literary classics.
There are so much of amazing literary volumes that the newer generation is unable to put their hands on
because of the lack of knowledge of existence of such literary masterpieces.
Gain in Experiential Learning:
It is widely and very rightly said that one person’s life is not enough to experience all and to learn from
those experiences.
This is where an experiential learning from the elderly comes into the picture to save the boat. Whoa
whoa whoa
 There are several aspects and situations in life that a person goes through right from their adolescence to
the old age, that people in general find it hard to cope up with those in their own capacity. That is where
they seek the support of others, be it in a situation where they are getting success or even when they are
facing failure.
Elderly people, having faced a lot more situations in life, be it relationships with the family, conduct of
individuals, girlfriends/boyfriends, extra marital affair, are better placed to be the guiding light for people
like Deepika Padukone who think #Mahlyf#Mahchoice
Be it the first crush, or the first job, or the first house, elderly people can be the advisor to the youngsters
at every point in their life. It is but imperative that the youngsters turn to them for guidance as what can be
learned from them is much more than from the chutiya self-help books available in the market.
Maturity of thinking:
The thinking process of an individual depends on the immediate surrounding around him/her. Hence for a
school going child it largely depends on his/her family, the teachers, and the peer group. An increased
interaction with the elderly will subsequently mean better and a mature way of thinking that will be
imbibed in the children from an early age. It will enable them to make better decisions for their future and
also help their standing in the society.
Like uncle Slim Shady has said: “Bitches they come they go, Saturday to Sunday Monday, Monday to
Sunday yo!” . It is quite clear from the quote itself that Slim Shady is shady, and did not have any elderly
person to talk to. In actuality, he did not have a good family life, where in he only had his mother to turn
to, who again was not mentally stable.
Better connect with the society:
Interacting with the elderly gives an individual the communication skills and vast repository of knowledge.
These skills and the knowledge helps an individual able to make a better connect with all the age groups
in the society.
Networking opportunities:
Respect for the elderly in the society comes with its own set of hidden benefits, one of them being the
ability to network. In the fast paced society of today, a networking always puts an individual in a better
position.

Delivery of Value Proposition

The delivery of value for the targeted segment of the School Children can be done in the following ways:
1.       School Books
2.       Assignments
3.       Guest lectures by the old people
4.       Visit to old age homes
It is quite evident that although the schooling system is targeted towards the youth, it can derive a lot of
value by including the older people in its delivery system for knowledge and learning.
The most basic way to go forward is inclusion of chapters in the Moral Sciences books describing the
various benefits that one can derive from being respectful to the older people in the society. As books are
the most wide reach mechanism that cater to all the students, it should be the first priority in the value
delivery chain.
The other method that we can use is to give assignments to the school going children that along with the
theoretical and the academic aspects of any particular topic, also focuses on the opinions and the
experiential learning of the elderly people. For example, an assignment on history or politics of India could
make use of the real life stories concerning the topic from the grandparents.
Guest lectures by the elderly people can also act as a way of delivering the value to the target segment. A
lecture by the older people in class will make the youngsters understand the need and the benefits of the
knowledge gain from the elderly.
Visiting the old age homes will make the students more sensitive to the age based problems, and the
issues faced by the older people. Also, it will help increase their understanding and help make a better
connect to the older people.