1st Edition
Eldercare Issues in China and India
The contributors to this book present case studies of elder care in China and India, and draw comparisons between the two – illuminating some of the key issues facing the two largest Asian countries as they develop rapidly.
Caring for the elderly is a major challenge for all countries, and one which is of acute concern for rapidly developing economies. Development tends to run counter to long-established cultural norms of family-based caring and filial piety, even as it also tends to lead to longer life expectancy. Taking a range of methodological and conceptual approaches to understanding these challenges, the contributors present a multifaceted understanding of elder care issues in both India and China. They focus in particular on caregiving within families and at care homes – and the impacts these have on quality of life and the experience of caregiving for both caregivers and the aged themselves.
An invaluable collection for scholars and students of gerontology and aging in Asia, that will also be of great interest to scholars with a broader interest in global trends in caregiving.
Biography
Longtao He is an associate professor in the Research Institute of Social Development at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China. His research interests focus on qualitative health research, medical social work, and social work ethics. He has published a sole-authored book titled "Care Work, Migrant Peasant Families and Discourse of Filial Piety in China" with Springer Nature. His articles appear in Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Religion & Health, Applied Research in Quality of Life, British Journal of Social Work, European Journal of Ageing, BMJ Open, Journal of Ageing and Social Policy, and so on.
Jagriti Gangopadhyay is currently an Assistant Professor at the Manipal Centre for Humanities, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). She is also the faculty coordinator for the Center for Women’s Studies. She did her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. For her research, she has received funding from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, India, National Commission for Women, India, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Recently she was also awarded the Shastri Publication Grant by Shastri Indo Canadian Institute for her published monograph, "Culture, Context and Aging of Older Indians: Narratives from India and Beyond, published by Springer. She has published in journals of international and national repute such as Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, Springer, Adoption Quarterly, Taylor and Francis, Ageing International, Springer, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics and Contributions to Indian Sociology, Sage.
"By bringing together Chinese and Indian views of eldercare under five key themes—filial piety, family care, institutionalized care, issues of care for the marginalized elderly, and eldercare research issues—this book allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that increasing population, aging, shifting cultural norms, and relatively limited public resources in both China and India have posed for the eldercare systems in these countries. This book builds up a strong body of interdisciplinary analyses of important issues under each of these themes and concludes with an illuminating synthesis of what has been presented. There are hardly any books available in the field of social gerontology with a focus on India and China. This book raises important issues about the status of eldercare in China and India and provides a meaningful starting point for further investigations. I think not only Chinese and Indian scholars, but also many international scholars would be interested in reading this book."---Fang Zhao (赵芳), Professor, School of Social Development and Social Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
"This book tries to capture the current scenario of eldercare in both countries by taking both positive and negative aspects into account. For example, it highlights the negative societal perception of older people, especially in China, despite it being known for glorifying virtues of filial piety. The book also emphasises that the elderly population is not a homogeneous category. For the experiences of marginalized elderly (single elderly in India and the elderly in China who have lost their only child) may not be the experiences of all elderly." --- Shivangi Patel, PhD candidate, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi
"All in all, the book presents us with some extremely critical questions on eldercare in India and China, keeping in mind the contemporary changes experienced by both the countries.To a great extent the book offers a strong example of comparative analysis and meaningful contributions by scholars from diverse disciplines such as health sociology, anthropology, social work, and social gerontology" --- Ashwin Tripathi, PhD candidate, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India
