ABANDONMENT OF ELDERLY PEOPLE IN NEPAL : Elderly People's Perspective

Abstract

This thesis has been written mainly from the perspective of the elderly people. The purpose of the thesis is to find out the relationship of elderly people with their family. The focus has been given on the family bond of elderly people with their children, feelings and the expectations of the elderly people who were abandoned by their own children. The theme is to explore the life situation of the elderly people with their children and to know whether the elderly people are wanted and welcomed warmly in the family or not. The thesis topic is related with the life experiences of the elderly people, their feelings, emotions and the expectations from their children and family, therefore, qualitative research method is applied to carry out the data collection. The data collection is done in one of the elderly care home of Nepal. The semi structured interview is done with two elderly people along with a short and simple group discussion. Both primary and secondary data sources have been used to get enough information due to lack of estimated participants. The data analysis is done with thematic approach. The finding of the thesis concludes that due to influences of western culture and modernization, the young generations are more interested towards the nucleated family that they are giving up on the traditional way of living as a joint family. Also, the study finds that due to change in the concept of the young generation, the elderly people are living the life of solitude. Most of the elderly parents who are living in the elderly care home have family with their children and grandchildren, but still they are abandoned by the family. Some elderly parents do not have good relationship with their children and some elderly parents’ children are living in cities and abroad that they are not helping or supporting the elderly parents left behind. The research shows that the elderly people are not very welcomed by the family.