Father Abused, Neglected and Kicked Out of House by Children Begs for Justice
Mangaluru: Gone are those days when parents, kith and kin lived as joint-families, but as per recent survey more than one-fifth of the elderly parents have experienced some kind of abuse or the other, usually from family members, especially bahu-beta. These days you find that many elderly parents are shifted to elderly-care homes or ashrams by their children, who were lovingly brought up by them. Many other elders are abused, ill-treated, neglected and finally thrown out of their own homes by their children- which is sad.
But when such problems are faced by the elders, almost all the elderly, nearly 98 percent, chose not to file legal complaints. But the other part of the problem is when all these studies come out, the stories you always hear are the most extreme ones. Well, the law is pretty strict about elder abuse, but also this is India?There are social pressures. “All the neighbours say, ‘Oh, look at those children, they left the parent on the road.’” So they take grandma back. Go to any old age home in India, or even here in Mangaluru, and you’ll hear these kinds of horror stories.
L-R : HRPF President Ravindrananth Shanbagh & Bhoja Shetty
These stories shock us. But in a way they also insulate us from the real problem which is far more ubiquitous. Not everyone is pushing their old mother down the stairs. But we brush older people aside in ways we don’t even realize. A survey found that 87 percent of elders in the 70-80 age group complain of isolation. And that happens even when they are living with family, at home. They just find themselves shunted off to the back bedroom. And here is one example of a elderly Father of total abuse, neglect, ill-treatment, and who was also thrown out from his own house by his children- and this dad narrated his story during a press meet in Udupi.
77-year-old man, Bhoja Shetty from Mudradi in Udupi District had complained to Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) , based in Udupi that he has been deprived of justice as monthly financial relief agreed by his children while taking possession of his properties has not been given to him since three years. Briefing the media HRPF President Ravindrananth Shanbagh said, ” The district administration should take steps to protect a senior citizen Bhoja Shetty who had been abandoned by his children. Shetty had to give up his studies when he was 12 and work as an agricultural labour in order to assist his father and to get his sisters married. He acquired five acres of farmland under Land Reforms Act at Mudradi village in Karkala taluk”.
“After working for over 35 years, in 1995, as per the advice of his wife, he divided and transferred his agricultural property and his residential house among his children, five sons and two daughters. Seven years ago, he entered into an agreement with them that he be given a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 for his maintenance by each one of his five sons. His two daughters are married, while three of his sons are settled in the hotel industry in Mumbai and Goa. Two years after the agreement, his sons started ill-treating him and nagging him regularly” added Shanbagh
He further said, “Then, they stopped payment of monthly maintenance. Shetty had to once again start working to get two square meals a day. For the last three years, He had been working as a watchman in a factory producing concrete blocks at Varanga near Mudradi. He had to get cataract operated in one of the eyes in a government hospital despite having wealthy sons. He approached the police in Hebri to help him get his monthly compensation for his livelihood as agreed upon by his sons. The police called his sons and procured a bond that they would provide the monthly maintenance in future. But they never kept their word”
Bhoja Shetty speaking said, “I approached HRPF in October 2018. I also lodged a complaint with the Senior Citizens Tribunal in Kundapur. A request was made to direct my sons to provide monthly maintenance as agreed, failing which they should re-transfer the property back to me. When notices were served on my five sons, they met the Conciliation Officer appointed by the district administration for settlement in December 2018 and assured me to provide monthly maintenance. In December 2019, the tribunal gave its verdict directing each one of my five sons to provide monthly maintenance of Rs 2,000 to me. It also ordered them to arrange for a rented accommodation for me, but that never happened”.
Shetty further said, “Even after the tribunal’s order, none of my sons remitted any maintenance to me. Meanwhile, the factory where I worked closed. So I approached the Welfare Officer at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office for implementation of the order of the Senior Citizens Tribunal but to no avail. I have been running from pillar to post from the past seven years. I beg the concerned authorities to grant me justice, so I can get out of this hardships”