A representational photo of doctors attending to patients in a hospital. Doctors say that the old people are left at the hospital by their relatives either after they sign property papers or during their stay in the hospital.
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Shalmala Dharwadkar (name changed) had been suffering from stomach ache for some time. She had been living alone in Dharwad, after her husband, a retired private company employee, died. Her two sons were settled in Mumbai and Bengaluru. She mentioned her chronic pain to her daughters-in-law when they came to visit her during the summer holidays. They took her to a private hospital in Dharwad and then to Belagavi institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS).
Ms. Dharwadkar underwent a minor operation and was ready for discharge after a week. But her sons were not to be found in the hospital premises. When the hospital staff tried to contact them, the young men denied that the woman was their mother. They claimed she had died years ago. Later, when one of them was summoned to the police station, and shown copies of the documents of properties signed by the woman, they accepted that she was their mother. The self-respecting woman, however, continued to live in a rented house in Dharwad.
This incident occurred two years ago, but is not an isolated one. It seems the trend of children abandoning their old parents in government hospitals continues to grow.
During a recent meeting, BIMS Director Ashok Kumar Shetty informed Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil that as many as 152 men and women have been abandoned by their children and relatives in two years.
Rehabilitating them
Of them, 73 were sent home, 62 were sent to old age homes, and 17 were sent back to their families in towns out of Karnataka, said a resident medical officer in charge of the geriatric ward.
“Rules say that patients need to be sent back after they are cured. If we do not send back cured patients, we will not have space to admit new patients,” said a doctor in-charge of the teaching hospital. “We still have at least 30 senior citizens who have been abandoned by their children or close relatives. We are trying to trace them.”
Doctors say that the old people are left at the hospital by their relatives either after they sign property papers or during their stay in the hospital. “They admit them saying they are suffering from some acute health issue or that they need surgery. But then, once they are treated, they refuse to take them back. There have been some cases where children have left the patients on the steps of the hospital, and never returned,” a doctor said.
Protection in law
Rohit Latur, a young lawyer who has helped some senior citizens facing similar problems, said that there are enough laws to protect the interest of elders. “According to various succession laws, like Hindu law or Muslim law, there is no automatic transfer of property during the lifetime of the parents. They have to sign some papers to transfer property, whether it is self-acquired or ancestral. However, they have the power to take back the property if they are ill-treated or not cared for. Sections 23 (1) and (2) of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, give the power to the transferer to take back property or maintenance out of an estate, from their children or kin.”
An officer at the Directorate of Medical Education said that the Minister has instructed all government hospital directors to file a complaint with the Revenue Assistant Commissioners asking them to cancel the property transferred by the abandoned parents to their children. “A detailed circular is expected this week,” he said.
Published – March 18, 2025 03:18 pm IST