Objective: The main aim of this study is to identify problems of scheduled caste aged in India.
Design: Descriptive design
Materials and Methods: Dalit dominated villages are identified for this study. 100 samples collected, 50 males and 50 females; it is a total survey and interview method; psycho-social problems are identified, stigma, untouchability, Dalit cultural and the government involvment is observed in this study.
Results: Scheduled caste aged people are in need of special care in social and medical aspects.
Conclusion: This study focuss on the care and services for the neglected people. Special care in the pscho-social view is needed, government should change thier policy in making new welfare schemes to the neglected people. There is a need of comprehensive care to the neglected aged population in India.
In India there are approximately 240 million Dalits, to be untouchable because of being born as a Dalit. A Dalit will be less well off because of less education and jobs. The aged Dalits face lot of psycho-social problems apart from the other social discrimination. The aged Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward, do not have access to enough food, health care, housing and clothing. They also do not have access to education and employment. Apart from these, they face many injustices in everyday life. They face a lot of violence, including land encroachment, murders, attacks, rapes and arson. They suffer from wage discrimination, infringement of the right to vote, dehumanizing living and working conditions, impoverishment and malnourishment. The aged Dalit people are affected by burdens of both caste and gender and even further removed from legal protections. Basic livelihood is denied to the Dalits, most of whom are still without even such basic amenities such as electricity, sanitation and safe drinking water. A full half of the SC population live below the poverty line in 1993 compard to a third of the general population whose percentage below the poverty line remained unchanged since 1987. Today over 86% scheduled caste households are landless or near landless, and 63% are daily wage labor households. Dalits wishing to acquire land through the land reforms are met with social boycott, ostracising them from buying or selling anything in the village. The elderly Dalits, particularly the Dalit women, are the most discriminated and exploited persons in a society dominated by caste hierarchy and patriarchy. In India there is wrong behavior such as forcing Dalits to drink or eat excreta, dumping carcasses or other waste matter in their premises and polluting their drinking water sources. There are four to eight lakh Dalits having to manully carry human excreta as part of the sanitation arrangements in various places, and most of them are over 65 years. The denial of rights, livelihood, land and labor, gender equity, life and security and employment to elderly Dalits amounts to 25% of the population of India. It is the largest democracy in the world.
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