Connected Care: Reconfiguration of care for the elderly in Indian transnational families

In India, family structures are changing dramatically due to the recent phenomenon of female labor migration. The social and economic realities of ageing and elder care are no longer national issues, as families, governments, and a number of public and private institutions organize care in transnational spaces. The study focuses on the care for Indian elderly whose daughters’ migrated to Oman as trained nurses. The research will explore how care is re-organized in transnational social space as children who are no longer providing care for their elderly parents “on site” are increasingly doing so from a distance by making use of new information and communication technologies (ICT). Moreover, it will examine physical, mental and social risks for the elderly in these families, particularly addressing the syndemics between depression, suicide, eating disorders and chronic illness among the elderly in relation to their social abandonment in the Indian culture where kin relations and co-habitation are crucial to individual’s health and wellbeing. The study will be relevant to current governmental, national and international bodies’ interests to understand the emerging practices of care for the elderly in the context of global migration. It will also offer a significant insight that will be useful in design and development of support interventions, including the use of ICT, for de facto childless elderly in local communities and the transnational social space.

Trefwoorden:B680-volksgezondheid