TN has most elderly living alone

I just got back home from Bangalore after attending the 1st Anniversary celebrations of YogaKshema, an elderly Rehab and there was Chennai edition of TOI lying outside my apartment door waiting to be picked. My filter coffee got even more interesting, was it the chicory in the coffee or in the paper that got me high and anxious?

Read more….
TN has most elderly living alone
One Of 14 Elders In State Has Solitary Life; Chennai No 2 Among Metros
This was an interesting research on the elderly front.
>>Roughly one out of every 14 people aged over 60 in Tamil Nadu — 7.5% to be precise — lives all by himself or herself. Compare that with the national average of 4% or one in 25. For old women, the situation is even worse. More than one in every nine (11.5%) has no companionship or support at home against the national average of 5.5%.

What is happening to Chennai compared to other cities and what skews our statistics? The story would have been more meaningful if it had unraveled the next layers below the soft, wrinkly skin of elderly men/women
1. were they married?
2. were they divorced?
3. were they widowed?
4. any children?
5. children overseas/outside of Chennai?
6. education levels of children?
7. Is it their choice or compulsion?

Let us take a sample space in Chennai city. Knock on every door in Mylapore and they will talk about their sons and daughter living overseas and their 6 months trip to San Jose and San Francisco. The Intellectual city has pawned their sons and daughters to Uncle Sam. Knock doors in Boston, New Jersey and San Francisco, you will find lot of kids guilty about leaving their parents alone in India. The tough job is balancing guilt and money. Our culture is different from the West, until East becomes West and lonliness will be threatening and guilt will weight more than our flesh. It was recorded in my neighbors Will, he didnt want to be kept in the freezer till his sons arrived from Dallas, that was day and a half. The irony is that the wait never ends....

I am single and I know that I will always be single, and I will be a part of the sample population in future. I have long back resigned to the fact that I will grow old and I will by myself, so reality will never bite me hard. There was a time when I used to think how can I live in the house all by myself (when my parents are gone) but when I realized that I can have people live with me the cloud of worry vanished instantly. World is lonely for people who lock themselves in their homes, but when they walk out and be a part of the world or invite the world to be a part of them the loneliness vanishes.

If you are afraid of living alone, take down my email and phone number, call me when you feel lonely and anxious, I will definitely have place in my house.

TN has most elderly living alone28 Apr 2008, 0317 hrs IST,Rema Nagarajan,TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/TN_has_most_elderly_living_alone/articleshow/2989068.cms
CHENNAI: Growing old is a lonely business anywhere, but more so in Tamil Nadu than elsewhere in the country. The state has the highest number and proportion of elderly people living on their own, especially elderly women. Roughly one out of every 14 people aged over 60 in Tamil Nadu — 7.5% to be precise — lives all by himself or herself. Compare that with the national average of 4% or one in 25. For old women, the situation is even worse. More than one in every nine (11.5%) has no companionship or support at home against the national average of 5.5%. Women comprise more than three-quarters (78%) of the elderly people living all alone in the state. Of the four lakh elderly people living alone in the state, 3 lakh are women, the highest in the country.

After Tamil Nadu, it is Andhra Pradesh that has the highest number and proportion of elderly men and women leading lonely lives. There are 3.8 lakh elderly people living alone in Andhra Pradesh, and of this nearly 3 lakh are women. In fact, across all regions in the south, the average number of elderly women living alone for every 1,000 elderly men living alone is much higher than the all-India figure of 2,300. In this category, Karnataka has the highest ratio in this regard followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Goa and Maharashtra, indicating that the pattern is a pan-Deccan phenomenon rather than just a south Indian one. However, the proportion of homes with elderly people in Tamil Nadu is the same as the all-India average. In most states, there are more elderly women than men while in Tamil Nadu they are almost equal.

When it comes to the overall sex ratio of the 60+ population, Tamil Nadu’s figure is lower than even the all-India average, way below states like Orissa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. That’s quite unlike the pattern of the other southern states, which have many more elderly women than men. Tamil Nadu has the highest proportion of elderly (10%) next to Kerala, which has 11%.

It is third when it comes to the absolute number of elderly people, nearly 60 lakh, after Uttar Pradesh with 1.2 crore and Maharashtra with nearly 86 lakh. Even among the metros, Chennai has the second highest proportion of elderly (8%), next only to Kolkata (10%). The statistics indicate a growing need to cater to the special needs of the elderly in Tamil Nadu, given the fact that so many of them have nobody to take care of them at home.