SPECIAL REPORT In a shocking trend, elderly parents are being dumped by their families in the Guruvayur temple complex. On any given day, thousands of devotees throng Guruvayur to seek Lord Krishna’s blessings. But a few visitors have a hidden agenda during their pilgrimage to the 17th-century temple in Thrissur district of Kerala — dumping their aged parents in the temple premises.
“Every month, at least 15 new destitutes end up staying at Guruvayur as the temple offers free meals at noon and evening,” says TT Sivadasan, chairman of the Guruvayur Municipality. “Many of them are those who have been kicked out of their homes by their families or dumped by their children.”
“Last month, a 90-year-old woman named Padmavati was found wandering in the temple premises,” says Sivadasan. “We tried to locate her family but all she could give us was a vague description of her location and family members. We have put her in an old-age home.”
A majority of the old people abandoned in Guruvayur are women who need medical care or are terminally ill.
The Guruvayur Municipality has been running a destitute home for the poor since 1998 and has now set up a day care centre for old people. Now, 21 inmates are lodged at the destitute home. “We have only limited funds for taking care of the destitute,” says Sivadasan. “Since their numbers are increasing day by day, we want to set up a bigger home for the destitute, where they can rest in the night.”
According to VK Sreeraman, chairman of the Guruvayur Municipality’s Standing Committee (Health), the new trend of dumping old people in public places is a result of nuclear families replacing the joint family system. “Earlier, the old people were given proper care, but now they are discarded like waste,” he says. “In my experience, it’s not the poor who are dumping the old; most of them are from educated middle-class families.”
Guruvayur ACP RK Jayarajan, who has launched a programme called Caring Touch to ease the pain of the unwanted senior citizens, says that abuse of the elderly is increasingly becoming common. “Many people prefer to dump their old parents here as the temple authorities offer free food,” he says. “At least, the old people won’t die due to starvation. In a way, they are kind to their old parents.”
Jayarajan, who has served in Guruvayur for more than nine years in various capacities, has come across several cases of senior citizens getting dumped in the temple premises. “Whenever we find a new destitute in the temple premises, we send them to the State-run old-age home,” he says. “Most of them don’t want to go back home because life used to be hell for them over there.”
A 73-year-old man, who did not wish to reveal his identity, says that his son had dropped him off at the temple premises in 2006. “I had five acres of land and both my sons were employed,” he says. “Things took a bad turn after my wife fell ill and died. I had to sell three acres for her treatment. I divided the rest between my sons. But that was a foolish decision. When they got the titles, they started finding fault with everything I did. Finally, they asked me to get out of the house.”
Now, he works as a watchman at a construction site. In the night, he comes to the temple premises to sleep.
“I could sleep at the construction site, but there are many people like me who come here to spend their nights,” he says. “So I come here to meet them every night and watch dance and music performances. In a way, I have started enjoying my life and now I have no worries.”
Is he not angry at his sons? “What’s the use of putting them behind bars? After all, they are my sons. They will realise their mistake when their children dump them in the streets,” he says.
Lonappan Jacob lives with his wife and two children at a small house located 1 km away from the temple. The 51-yearold repairs sewing machines for a living. But his real calling is to help destitutes who end up at Guruvayur.
In 1996, he set up a charity organisation to help the destitute and has rescued more than 500 senior citizens who were abandoned by their families.
“I helped them find shelter as no one was there to help,” says Jacob. “Many of the destitutes don’t reveal that they had been dumped. They don’t want bad publicity for their families.”
“Last year, I saw a man crying in the street,” he recalls. “When I asked him about his problem, he told me that he had come to the temple with his son’s family and got lost. We tried to search for his family in vain. I took him to my home and fed him. I gave him a place to sleep. The next day, he told me his story. All his four sons are government servants. He was suffering from cancer and his sons were not ready to get him treated. They wanted to get rid of him. So, the elder son took him to Guruvayur and abandoned him. I took him to an old-age home, where he died. His sons never claimed his body.”
In a similar incident, a man dumped his 75-year-old mother at Guruvayur because she was blind. “He and his wife were a working couple and had no time to take care of her,” says Jacob. “They were not willing to hire a help.”
Jacob says many senior citizens are facing abuse. “I don’t think the law can put a stop to it,” he says. “We need to change our attitude towards the old. They gave us their blood and sweat when they were healthy. We must take care of them and treat them with dignity.”
A national survey conducted by HelpAge India, an NGO, reveals that many families are guilty of abusing senior citizens. The survey held in 24 cities, including Kochi, showed that more than one-fifth of the elderly people experienced abuse one way or the other. Daughters-in-law were found to be the primary perpetrators with 39 percent, closely followed by sons at 38 percent.
“Our survey revealed that 70 percent of the abused never reported the matter,” says Biju Mathew, Kerala coordinator of the HelpAge survey. “A majority feared loss of family prestige and reputation; 23 percent of the elderly feared retaliation and 20 percent of them didn’t know where to report and whom to report to.”
According to Mathew, a hefty bank balance or ownership of a house and property are not enough to save the elderly people from abuse. “Earlier, we thought that a good bank balance can guarantee an easy retired life for the senior citizens,” he says. “But many of them told us that they were being abused by sons and daughters demanding them to transfer the money to their accounts.”
Additional DGP B Sandhya, who heads the Community Police Programme in Kerala, says that incidents of elderly abuse have been on the rise. “During our interaction with elderly people, we have noticed that many of them were subjected to abuse,” she says.
While Kerala continues to excel in health and cultural indices, its senior citizens are suffering humiliation and torture at the hands of their family members. As a result, many prefer to live on the streets rather than their own homes.
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