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Migrant Children, Ageing Parents and Transnational Care Strategies: Experiences from Central Travancore, Kerala

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Elderly Care in India

Abstract

Ageing and transnational migration are two key processes of transformation in the contemporary world. Kerala has become the site for both these processes of transformation. While the state has had a history of large-scale transnational migration, which has had far-reaching influence on the economic and social fabric of the state, the ageing of its population has been a more recent phenomenon. Rapid demographic transition, population ageing and widespread transnational migration have come together to define the larger socio-demographic context of the state. Large-scale migration has dictated the absence of the younger generation of family caregivers, whereas an intensification of ageing in Kerala has resulted in a growing need for care for older persons staying behind. In this context, the paper discusses the implications of transnational migration of younger generation on the care for the older persons staying behind, examining the transnational care strategies and provisioning of care within the transnational families, in the empirical context of Kerala, which is at the forefront of both migration and ageing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since the 1970s, the Kerala’s development experience has received a lot of academic attention, for its accomplishments in terms of favourable statistical indicators of development in the field of health, education and other social and demographic indicators while remaining at low levels of income (see UN & CDS 1975; Franke and Chasin 2000; Raman 2010; Véron 2001; Kurien 1995 also see Thankappan and Valiathan 1998 for discussion on Kerala model of health).

  2. 2.

    Syrian Christians are an ethnic religious group in Kerala. Syrian Christians popularly believe that they are the descendants of high-caste (Brahmin) converts of Thomas, the apostle of Christ, who was thought to have arrived in Malabar on his apostolic mission in AD 52 (Visvanathan 1993). They are high-status affluent minority community forming a small per cent of the population. The principal Syrian Christian denominations are namely, the Orthodox Syrian, Jacobite Syrian, Syro-Catholics and Mar Thoma Syrian.

  3. 3.

    As per the Kerala Migration Survey, among all the districts in the state, Pathanamthitta has the highest proportion of Syrian Christians (Zachariah 2001) also has the third highest proportion of emigrants per 100 households at 43 after Malappuram and Kannur (Zachariah and Rajan 2015).

  4. 4.

    Tirunadu is a social village, not an administrative, in the Pathanamthitta District. Although located in a rural area, it is far more urbanised. In Kerala, there is a rural urban continuum because of which the rural and urban areas are not drastically different from each other. The name of the place is a pseudonym, used to protect the privacy of the community.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is based on the author’s Ph.D thesis titled ‘Transnational Linkages and Organisation of Care Work for the Aged: Experiences from Central Travancore, Kerala’ submitted at the Centre for Development Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, under the supervision of Prof. S. Irudaya Rajan.

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  1. Centre for Development Studies, Prasanth Nagar, Medical College P.O, Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram, 695011, Kerala, India

    Sreerupa

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  1. Centre for Development Studies , Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    S. Irudaya Rajan

  2. Independent Researcher , Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Gayathri Balagopal

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Sreerupa (2017). Migrant Children, Ageing Parents and Transnational Care Strategies: Experiences from Central Travancore, Kerala. In: Irudaya Rajan, S., Balagopal, G. (eds) Elderly Care in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3439-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3439-8_15

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