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Two sessions at the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress in New York last July were devoted to "How to become a Joyful Centenarian.” A panel discussion on "Reinventing Oneself” under this series familiarized the audience with individuals who had expanded the scope of retirement to lead a productive life of purpose. The second session on "Aging across the Zoroastrian World” dwelt on the conditions and opportunities for seniors in different geographical pockets. "A culmination of the work and research” that went into this project resulted in a white paper by Dr Dolly Dastoor and Nawaz Merchant where they have analyzed the data and suggested possible solutions. Their findings concerning seniors in India, Pakistan and Iran have been carried in this issue of Parsiana while further information on Zoroastrians in the diaspora will be carried in the forthcoming issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With lifespan in the Zoroastrian community increasing up to 90 years and beyond, will the sunset years be gainfully spent amidst family and co-religionists or as cast asides pining for company? 

"Our aim in doing this exercise and writing this white paper was to sensitize the Zarathushti population of the situation in India and in the diaspora and stress that now is the time to take action. The data for this presentation was collected between 2020 and 2022,” stated Dastoor who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology specializing in assessment of dementia. On the faculty of psychiatry at McGill University, she chairs the Education Committee of the University’s Research Centre in Studies in Aging. For 40 years she worked with the Douglas Hospital retiring as clinical administrative chief of the Program in Dementia with Psychiatric Comorbidity. Past president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) and current editor of its quarterly FEZANA Journal she is co-chair of the FEZANA Scholarship Program.

"There is an impression that aging Zoroastrians in the West have all their problems solved. This is not so, as loneliness and lack of transportation isolate immigrants to a terrible degree… It was a strong signal in the earlier research too that we completed in 2016 with a survey of 400 senior Zoroastrians in North America,” reminded Merchant whose thesis for her Master’s degree was on "Mental Health Policy and the Immigrant Elderly, the South Asian Experience.”  When requested by Homi Gandhi, then president of FEZANA, to undertake the first ever needs assessment of senior Zarathushtis in North America, Merchant along with Dastoor and Piroja Press conducted the survey. The findings clearly showed the seniors needed more social engagement. Many pleaded for some form of housing where they could meet other Zoroastrians and live in proximity to dar-e-mehers.

When those results were shared in 2017, the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York began a senior activity group called ZGoldies, mentioned Merchant who enjoyed a long career in business analysis after which she returned to her passion for writing fiction under the pseudonym Nev March. She was the first Indian born writer to win the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America Award for Best First Crime Fiction and teaches creative writing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Rutgers University. 

"How the global Zarathushti community addresses the challenges of a large aging cohort will determine how we are judged by history. Did we abandon our seniors and leave them to struggle alone? Or did we mobilize our immense creativity and partnership to care for them to make their sunset years safe and joyful?... Zarathushtis want to support their own family members. But what about those who we are not directly related to? Do we have an obligation to them?” nudged the white paper.

Seniors struggle in India

 

 

 

 

Around 75% of the world’s Zoroastrian seniors live in India. Of the estimated 19,500 global Zarathushti seniors aged over 60, nearly 14,500, reside in this country. North America with nearly 2,751 (1,901 in the USA and 850 in Canada) and Iran with 1,000 accounted for the second and third highest tally of seniors. Additionally there are around 650 in the UK, 315 in Australia, 150 in Pakistan, 60 in New Zealand and 17 in Oman, according to the facts and figures, with analysis presented in the white paper. (The North American count is based on the 2016 survey, the figures for other countries were calculated based on the updates from Zoroastrian associations received in early 2022, stated the authors.)

The age composition of the Parsi population is skewed in India with those over 60 years of age known to be 31% in 2011, "probably the highest in the world,” and further rising. This has resulted in a high dependency ratio where the care of the seniors falls upon a few adults, many of whom are earning and caring for young families. Additionally, a large proportion of Zoroastrian seniors live alone. Some are unmarried, others are widowed or may have no children or children living abroad. In the absence of family, they have perforce to pay handsomely for carers.

Further compounding this problem is the severe inflation in India over the last few decades. According to the white paper, in the last 10 years the value of savings has decreased by 78% (even if the senior has not spent a single rupee of their savings and lived on the interest alone). Guesstimating that about 25% of the seniors, 3,639, must be in the low income category (having retired from low paying jobs, or suffering from disabilities or with high number of dependents) and an equal percentage in the high income (with good savings), the balance 50% are assumed to be in the middle income bracket. 

While currently those in the low income category face serious financial hardship, in the next 10 years it is expected that nearly 9,000 seniors may need financial assistance. While some may be residing with adult offspring who bear the costs of their parents’ medical and other needs, others may not have a family member nearby or may have a non-Parsi daughter-in-law or son-in-law or grandchildren looking after them. 

Institutional care in the old world

Seniors living with family may find themselves in cramped quarters that could pose an emotional strain on the family. Perforce, they may be admitted to community old age homes/infirmaries that have been serving the community since the last century.   

At the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trusts (WZOT) senior citizens centers in Navsari they have 45 occupants although they have capacity for 50. The other homes are far underutilized: at Navsari’s Parsi Infirmary, 39 of the 61 beds are occupied. In Surat’s Nariman Home and Infirmary which has a capacity to house 35 males and 15 females, there are 22 males and five females. At the F. S. Parukh Dharamshalla managed by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), 56 of the 100 beds are occupied. (Data for these institutions was provided by BPP chairperson Armaity Tirandaz and chairman of WZOT Dinshaw Tamboly in September 2022.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bombay additionally has other institutional options for seniors. There is the Parsi Ward at J. J. Hospital, the Gamadia Clinic, the old age home at Masina Hospital and the Pallonji Shapoorji Home for Senior Citizens of The B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital. 

Two new centers for the elders introduced last year are The Living Tree, launched by the Master Foundation in New Bombay and Healing Touch, Senior Citizens Home at village Garade, 23 km from Poona, started by retired merchant navy officer Capt Adi Mistry.

Calcutta has 380 Zoroastrians of whom 60% are aged over 60 years. Among the seniors, women constitute 61% of the population. The Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund has a team of caregivers who regularly visit the elderly, run errands for and with them. Their dharamshala houses a few seniors who have become permanent residents.

In Karachi it is guesstimated that 15 to 20% of the Zoroastrians are on assisted living, whether at their own homes, the infirmary section of the Parsi General Hospital (which has 40% vacancy) or the Arman Home for the elderly (with 50% vacancy), according to Gulbanu Bamji, honorary secretary of the Hospital, Meher Cawasji who heads the Arman Home, and Sunnu Golwalla, editor of What’s On, the newsletter of the Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal. They reported that many want to live on their own instead of availing of institutional care as they find it difficult to leave the familiarity and comfort of their residence and sever their attachments. Living in a ‘home’ is considered shameful to many in the East even though they need the assistance. 

Seniors suffer loneliness and miss visits from children resulting in emotional needs not being met. Those without families have to combat both loneliness and depression that sets in. Being unable to do things they once could takes a toll on their self-esteem. The elderly tend to be set in their ways, not open to change and unable to comprehend what is in their best interest. 

In Iran, barring a few seniors who have to depend entirely on community funds and government support, the majority live off their investments and retirement pension. Family members arrange for their care and treatment, especially when the aged are unwilling to relocate. Homes for seniors in Tehran, Yazd and Kerman, supported by the Iranian Health Ministry, offer free and discounted services to the elderly. Able bodied seniors in Yazd have the option to be driven to and from care centers for the elderly each morning in time for breakfast after which they can avail of a medical check-up, exercise, enjoy entertainment and indoor games until lunch and rest, and return to their respective homes before sunset. Some well-to-do seniors stay in expensive living facilities that are almost like resorts. 

Eighty-eight-year-old Mobed Mehraban Firouzgary, who supplied information on Iran, lives alone since the majority of his family have migrated. He has to "manage the housework without outside help besides catering to a multitude of community commitments, all honorary. These include writing a lot, in spite of poor eyesight, and age related problems like low blood pressure, etc. Half of his monthly retirement pension goes to charities.”

Care and companionship

To assist seniors throughout the world starved of love and attention, varied solutions have been offered: Encourage able adults to provide the aged required service and ‘bank’ the hours for when they need it (thereby the time they devote to community service is recorded and when in turn they need assistance, it is made available to them). Or those unable to pay back financial loans could be given the option of compensating in community service hours. Yet another recommendation is to introduce commercial ventures like ‘Good Fellows’ sponsored by former Tata Group head Ratan Tata that offers seniors high quality interactions and positive relationships through a subscription model (at Rs 5,000 per month) to avail of a young companion for walks, doctor visits, assistance with technology or just conversation.

As reminded Tamboly, "Many think that poverty only means being hungry and homeless. What they do not realize is that the poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is poverty of a far greater kind, a poverty that no one should be made to endure.”

               To be concluded in the next issue