Self-Perceptions of Elderly About Facilities at Their Homes: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

Ageing is defined as a natural and universal phenomenon which begins from the birth of an individual and continues till death. After the birth, an individual gradually crosses the various stages of life and finally dies due to ageing. Each stage of human life is associated with certain hopes, aspirations and achievements and at the last in the old age; the man tries to find out the last query of his life (Chaturbhuja, 1998). Ageism has been defined in multiple ways. In this study, it is defined as “negative or positive stereotypes, prejudice and/or discrimination ‌against (or to the advantage of) elderly people based on their chronological age, or based on a perception of them as being ‘old’ or ‘elderly’” (Iversen et al., 2009). When ageism is directed at oneself in old age, it can be conceived as self-perceptions of aging (Levy, 2009). Ageism has potential economic costs. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the Self-Perceptions of Elderly About Facilities at their homes. The study was conducted in Hisar and Mahendragarh district of Haryana State on 360 rural elderly who were selected randomly from Hisar and Kanina Block. It was observed that on an average 78.6 percent respondents were having high level of perceived physical facilities whereas 20.8 percent were having moderate and 0.6 percent were having low level.