GENDER AND INTERGENERATIONAL CORESIDENCE OF THE ELDERLY IN INDIA

Social institutions and the patriarchal system in India deprive women of taking the role of head of the household when their husbands are alive and most often, they have to depend on children once they become widows. We unravel these unwritten social norms conventionally practiced in terms of intergenerational co-residence of elderly females versus males with children in self or spouse support providing and in child headed support receiving households from the perspective of the elderly. Analysis of nationally representative samples of 15,649 females and 16,240 males 60 years and above revealed that co-residence in child headed households among elderly females is 53.6 percent as against 26.5 percent among elderly males. More than 70 percent of widowed or widower/divorced/separated elderly co-reside in child headed support receiving households. The vulnerable non-literate, economically dependent and physically immobile females are more likely to co-reside in child headed households than their male counterparts. About 56 percent of elderly males lived with children in self or spouse headed households indicating that children too benefit from parents particularly for housing.