‘Institutional Provisions and Care for the Aged’ edited by S Irudaya Rajan, Carla Risseeuw, Myrtle Perera

ISBN: 9788190583565; List Price: £60.00 / $100.00

Available for sale at a discount on www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com.

Care for the elderly has increased in both duration and intensity, particularly because of better medical conditions resulting in increased lifespan. Understanding the numerous dimensions of ageing will play a consequential role in determining future national policies. This book addresses a wide spectrum of issues faced by the elderly in India, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, primarily from social and economic perspectives. South Asian cultures more than others have traditionally endorsed living arrangements that entail co-residence of aged parents with their children, which has been the crux of the support system of the aged. Significant shifts in family structure spurred by modernization prompted increased family nucleation.  All three countries offer interesting insights as India is projected to have an ageing population of 90 million in the near future, and Sri Lanka has one of the highest proportions of ageing people in the developing world. By delving further, one can view these trends in the context of widespread poverty and inadequate social security systems in India, and high human development indicators in Sri Lanka. This book is useful for policymakers and academics in the fields of social provision and social welfare.

S Irudaya Rajan is Chair Professor, Research Unit on International Migration at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Carla Risseeuw is Professor of Intercultural Gender Studies, Department of Anthropology and Development Sociology, University of Leiden, Netherlands.
Myrtle Perera is Vice Chairperson, Marga Institute, Colombo.