* Prakash Mhatre (69) and his wife Sangeeta (63), a retired couple residing at Anand Sagar in Kandivli, are facing eviction—and it is not because of the landlord. The one who is harassing them to leave is their son, Sandeep (44), who wants to sell their house. The Mhatres have been forced to go to the police
* Anjum Patil (68), a widow who lives in a flat at Gandhinagar in Bandra, approached the police as a last resort, tired of the string of verbal abuses and threats she was facing from her 32-year-old son and his wife. They want her to sign over the property to them
* Anand Joshi (72) complained to the police about his 28-year-old banker son who refused to support him and was threatening to evict him from his own house
Not isolated cases, but these events mirror what is a shocking trend in Mumbai—more and more senior citizens (names changed to protect their identity) of the city are being traumatised by their own flesh and blood.
The Social Counselling Cell (SCC) of the Mumbai Police is seeing a steady rise in the number of domestic dispute applications in which senior citizens and elderly couples are being harassed, and at times even assaulted, by their sons or daughters.
Every year, the SCC receives an average of 1,200 applications on domestic disputes and the percentage of those involving senior citizens is increasing. “At least 40 per cent—it was 20 per cent earlier—are about the abuse of senior citizens,” said an SCC officer.
The numbers have been rising in the past two years, prompting former commissioner A N Roy to pass a circular in 2006, asking officers to take strict action in such cases. “I did so as we were receiving a large number of complaints from senior citizens against their own family members,” he told Newsline.
“We get an average of 15 calls a day from senior citizens who are being harassed by their children,” said Neha Shah, a social worker with Dignity Foundation, an NGO working with the elderly of the city. “The reasons are either property or based on a history of bad relations between parents and their children. It’s a very serious problem in Mumbai.”
Roy’s successor D N Jadhav confirmed the trend. “Such cases are increasing and it is very disturbing. Property disputes are at the core of these complaints,” he said.
DCP Sanjay Mohite, who is in charge of the SCC, talks of his own experience. “Recently, I had to intervene in a case in which a young woman was beating and threatening her own mother, who had approached us reluctantly. I called the daughter to my office and told her in no uncertain terms that she should stop this ill treatment at once.”
The police say most of the time counselling sessions with both parties help. “The fear of the law works. Even though we don’t book them immediately, they are shaken when dealing with policemen,” said R A Pawar, an inspector with the SCC. “If the harassment or assault does not stop, we ask the complainant to file an FIR.”