Revered or Abused: Exploring Reasons for Abuse Within Family from the Narratives of Three Elderly Women in Chennai

Abstract

Though elder abuse is evident and documented in Indian context, the understanding of abuse revolves around specific themes or prevalence, types of abuse, the perpetrators and the interventions. This paper attempts to move beyond the definitions and types and intends to document older women’s experiences of abuse. The study borrows from the narratives of older women living in Chennai, and the themes are derived from the narratives. The themes indicate that the instance of abuse happens because of many social processes—both micro and macro. The micro-processes involving individuals and families had been attentively studied; however, the macro-processes such as migration, globalization and privatization of health care have been overlooked and its relationship with elder abuse still needs further exploration and investigation.