"However elders in rural areas suggested increasing financial assistance andcreating self-help group of old can deal with this issue successfully. Also 22% ofthem consider effective legal reporting and redress mechanism can handle thisissue successfully.19.Awareness about redress mechanisms [Chart 30 (a) & (b)]In regard to awareness about existing redress and reporting mechanisms, 56%elders in urban areas knew about police help lines, 35% knew about HelpAge Indiahelp lines and only 7 % elders knew about tribunal under MPSWC act. Incomparison, 72% elders in rural areas knew about police help lines, only 26%knew about help age help lines and none knew about the tribunal.56 4.2 Personal interviews(A) Case studiesThis section presents some personally interviewed cases of neglect and humiliationagainst elderly in the Capital city.Case study IMr. Rajesh Singhal, 78 years old, a resident of Saraswati Vihar, was asked to leavehis own house by his son and daughter-in-law. He was highly miserable anddepressed and told us that his own son and daughter-in-law abused him and refusedto give him food a few days before abandoning him. His son even slapped him andhis daughter in law told him that she has fed him for 10 years and so, could notfeed him anymore. Also, his children did not use to give him any money for hismedicines and used to pass torturing comments to him daily. It has been a year thathe has filed a complaint against his children but the decision of the court is stillpending. At present, he is living with one of his friends.Case study IIMrs Rani, 72, a widow who is currently staying with her younger sister in KohatEnclave, actually belongs to a residential society in Mayur Vihar. She recalled thather son and daughter-in-law used to rob her off her husband?s pension, which isher only source of livelihood. The degree of mistreatment she was subjected togrew manifold immediately after her husband?s death. Her son denied her acataract surgery, which she needed on an emergency basis, as she had lost hervision almost completely. Her younger son, who stays in the United States with hisfamily, is equally unperturbed. It has been over 6 months that she has shifted to hersister?s residence but has not received a single telephone call from any of her sons.She recollected that on the last day of stay in her house that continues to be in thename of her husband, her daughter-in-law pushed her across the gas stove whileshe was cooking food for herself. She escaped the ruthless act with burns on herhands.57 Case study IIIRajeev Jogeshwar, 62, is a watchman at Goyal Garments shop located at KapilVihar. He earns a very meagre amount of income enough for his own survival. Hiswife died 5 years before and he currently resides with his son, daughter-in-law andtwo granddaughters. All of them live in a very small room divided into two halves.This only asset earlier belonged to Rajeev but was forcefully taken away by his sonin his name. Rajeev said that his money is snatched away by his daughter-in-lawcomplaining about the increasing burden of household expenditure and forgranddaughters? marriages. His daughter-in-law spends on various new machines,cosmetics and other unnecessary items but does not give him a single penny. Everyother day he is verbally abused not only by his son but also by daughter-in-law. Hesaid he is given a corner to breathe but not to live. Also, he is not given meals evenmost of the times and whenever he spends outside for eating, he is punishedharshly for the same. When he reported this matter to his boss, the boss did warnRajeev?s son. As a consequence, Rajeev was threatened to leave the house and wasmistreated badly. Rajeev said he is not only emotionally depressed but alsopsychologically traumatized and did not know what has to be done.Case study VII met a woman aged around 65 years. She used to visit one of the governmenthospitals in Delhi for physiotherapy where my sister was an intern. The womanwas then seeking treatment for a broken wrist. Fracture was not the issue; issuewas how she got it. While taking the treatment, she told every bit of her story tomy sister. Her husband got paralyzed when she was around 35 years and died after5 years. Her only son was a teenage at that time. Due to indulgence in badcompany, her son started smoking, drinking, gambling and also started stealingfrom his own house. The woman as a result took to babysitting and tiffin servicefor office going people. She thought that her son should get married as this couldgive him an escape route from bad company. But even after his marriage, nothingchanged. He started inflicting violence on his wife. His wife left him and he startedconsuming drugs. Then, he started physically abusing his mother. She nevercomplained of what she was undergoing to anyone, as she started thinking that it?sall her destiny and karma of past life.58 4.3 Role of mediaWith the increasing inception of modernity into our society, elder abuse has beenincreasing too. It is abysmal to notice this trend in India where elder people wererespected and supported by their next generation by the virtue of Indian culture. Aslong as Joint family and value based system had been prevalent in India, this wasnot a major issue but always seen as a western problem. Hence, integration of Indiawith world has not only resulted in an exchange of different modern culture,religion, ethnicity, art but import of various western problem like discriminatingthe elder group when it comes to the cost of living on the bread winner.The mass media plays a very inspiring role in the upliftment of elders in thesociety. Newspapers, magazines and social networking sites like facebook, twitteretc. have a wide outreach and they help in highlighting the incidents of elderabuse in different parts of the world. They make people aware of the possiblecauses and harsh consequences of such a menace.It sets agenda for policymakers. Now days, the social networking sites has enabled people to freely express theirviews on this crime and in this way, they can mobilize the support of other peoplein the society to curb this menace.Social Media like newspaper, magazine, television has explicitly portrayed thisissue in depth. Newspaper spread awareness about elder abuse in the following way. It waspublished in HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, dated June 14, 2013 that“around 20% elders from Delhi and 23% across India have claimed to have hadpersonal experiences of being abused but 70% elderly abuse cases are not reported”.Similar publication by HT dated June 15, 2013; revealed that “one-fifth of India's elderlyare abused at home, a survey by NGO Help Age India has revealed. But the goodthing is: It is significantly lower from a similar survey in 2012 that showed 31% ofsenior citizens had reported abuse — disrespect, verbal abuse, neglect andbeating/slapping”.Similarly, another report on elder abuse was published by The HINDU on WorldElder Abuse Awareness Day, dated JUNE 16, 2012; that “India's elder abuse graphis rising and in-laws are the primary abusers”.59 "