Archive

Sapur Desai had warned in 1948 that "coherent life is disintegrating. The Parsi has left his usual expansive rural habitat in favor of an ever circumscribing urban life... Poverty is growing from year to year. A larger number is getting submerged.” (A Community at the Cross-Road). Tables of the fall in fertility, size of family, physical and psychological issues, accompanying poverty including deficiency of diet and health had been highlighted, while the glaring disparity between those few who were economically and intellectually able and those many that were deprived had all been pointed out in great detail. But Desai’s prediction went unheeded, because the Parsis were still seen as an elite, small group, without the problems facing a newly partitioned India. 

Today, based on census data, the Parsi population has declined from 1,14,890 in 1941 to 57,264 in 2011. The population of children below five years per 10,000 population has dropped from 13.6% in 1881 to 3.2%, far below the replacement level, while the population above the age of 60 is 31%. There are less people to manage an asset rich but cash strapped community, while an aging population puts an increasing demand on limited resources and on decrepit community infrastructure. 

Ten years of pan-Indian studies by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) researchers working with Parzor produced four volumes published by SAGE in 2017. Of these, the two named here have discussed the issue of the decline of family and the problems of the aged in great detail and need to be studied by those creating policies for the Parsis. Demographic Transition among the Parsis of India: A Qualitative Study of the Familial, Marital And Socio-Psychological Dimensions by Prof Shalini Bharat, and Situational Analysis of the Elderly Parsis in India by Prof Siva Raju, have discussed the fallacy of regarding the Parsis as an affluent group well looked after by a multiplicity of organizations from local anjumans and punchayets at community level to large trusts at the national level. Sensational headlines about Parsi properties sold for crores of rupees or millions of dollars have obscured the slide into genteel poverty. 

The disadvantaged, and there are many, are hidden, because Parsi housing colonies have kept the poor Parsis, overwhelmingly elderly, out of India’s slums. But an aging population with fewer working members each year has created a dependency on younger people which is dangerous for a community. At times one young couple has to care, economically and emotionally, for parents, grandparents, children and unmarried uncles and aunts. In the large joint families of a rural past they could at least be fitted under one roof in a one bedroom tenement. In the metropolis, senior citizens’ homes with large bills are one alternative, as are the charity wards in hospitals where after an illness many elderly continue to remain. A study by Singh and Gowri (2000) of Parsis in Greater Bombay showed 36% of the Parsi population as unmarried, thereby adding to the number of the aging without family support. Some of these die alone and are found days later by neighbors. In Bombay, the Parsi baug is a safety net for such people, but outside a close-knit baug dying alone is a sad reality.  

How can we as individuals, families and a community care for the elderly? With a ratio of the aged population, 65 years and above, being three times that of the young, there are families in cities where for three elders there is a single child. The distress of single member households or homes with two adults, unmarried siblings, common among the Parsis, and unbelievable to the census enumerator, must also be considered. 

The Rath and Hani Study showed that some of the poor households were below the poverty line (BPL), according to even the very low standards of the government and therefore extremely vulnerable. (Read Anita Rath and Rakshandah Hani, Vol 1, pg 86, in Bharat and Armaity S. Desai’s The Indian Parsis: Themes Old & New. The Parsis of India: Continuing at the Crossroads, 2017.)  Any medical crisis or major repairs pushes them lower and they survive only by garnering funds from as many different charities as possible. The vulnerability due to violence against the elderly, single Parsis by those who serve them has increased as prices of properties across India escalate.

The Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund (CZCRCF) took steps to address this issue over 20 years ago. They appointed a professional, paid social worker to coordinate all matters dealing with senior citizens on a daily basis. Issues like banking, shopping, medical appointments and even social interactions have been cared for at a professional level. Recently, a senior citizen without family had a surgery and nursing provided for along with emotional and psychological support. They also have a band of volunteers. 

The CZCRCF has monetized its valuable property in the heart of the city and used the funds to care for the living population.  If this can be replicated in each Parsi baug in Bombay and each area of Delhi — dividing the National Capital Region (NCR) into three pockets, NOIDA, Delhi and Gurgaon — it would enable elders to live with dignity in their own homes, knowing that if they are in need of assistance they can reach out on a WhatsApp or mobile number and speak to someone who will listen; assistance is their right. This is no time to argue about creating dependency; the elderly are dependent and should not be made to feel they are a burden. 

Through living wills, bequeathing their property to the Parsi anjuman or association which provides services and cares for them while alive, elders can repay such services after death and create a cycle of wealth generation. This model can serve those who have properties and wealth, but there are many who retired on small pensions decades ago and have no place except the senior citizens’ homes created in the late 19th and early 20th century. The irony is that in a place like Surat some of these beautifully maintained homes for the aged are virtually unoccupied. The fall in population is clearest when you look around these depleted wards. Can such large properties be utilized, in part, for other non-Parsi related activities, to provide finance for those who need it, especially for medical purposes? 

This brings us to the issue of medical bills. An aging individual needs ready cash for any medical emergency, and if they do not have cashless insurance, they cannot avail of most hospital treatments without a large deposit. Another drain on them is the regular daily medication needed in a community which suffers disproportionately from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and depression. Some of these are linked with age, but many are heightened by the emotional issues of loneliness and insecurity. 

Northern Europe has created crèches within senior citizens’ homes,  providing security and care for children whose parents are working, and love and companionship for the elderly residents. Without involving blood relatives this has created bonding, with the added value of joy and affection of being around small children. 

There are many solutions, as we can see; but only if we use our assets wisely. It is heartbreaking to see once beautiful Parsi properties lying abandoned, with grass growing high on boundary walls, in regions which have some of the highest land value in the world. The normal response is that these are trust properties, with a specific purpose and therefore cannot be used in any other way. There are also well-maintained holiday homes for the less fortunate, where the rates are reasonable, but a trust deed which mandates that they be used only for a very short duration. Fortunately, we have a number of legal minds who can certainly apply for a change of user (cy pres) doctrine. If these properties can be efficiently repurposed, we can change our community from an asset rich, cash poor one, to a professionally managed "helpage system.” 

Prof (Dr) Shernaz Cama is the founder and director of Parzor Foundation started in 1999 as an initiative of UNESCO New Delhi. In addition to working with the demographic team at Parzor, she guided the Jiyo Parsi initiative for several years. Since her retirement as professor in the English department of Lady Shri Ram College this year, she has been spearheading the Tata Institute of Social Sciences-Parzor online certificate course in Parsi-Zoroastrian Cultural and Heritage Studies.