International Journal of Social and Economic Research
Year : 2011, Volume : 1, Issue : 1
First page : ( 226) Last page : ( 232)
Online ISSN : 2249-6270.

Social life of elderly in “twin-city” of Odisha – a gender perspective

Dr. Mohapatra Tanuja

Ravenshaw University, Cuttack

Online published on 31 January, 2012.

Abstract

The study focuses on the social life of elderly in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, popularly known as Twin-city of Odisha. The main purpose of this paper is to find out gender differences with regard to social life of elderly in family, neighbourhood and society. The study was carried out with a sample of 300 male and female elderly from upper, middle and lower classes. They have been interviewed and data have been analysed to bring out the gender differences. Analysis reveals that in the family, females have lower status and they participate less in the decision making process of the household but, still they are well adjusted as compared to the male elderly. Females spend most of their time in domestic sphere and males in the public sphere. In the neighbourhood, females’ participation is more than the males’. But at the societal level males participate more than their counterparts. The results indicated that elderly in the Twin-city of Odisha are not isolated. They are having good social life by participating in the household activities, neighbourhood activities and social activities. They maintain good relations with family members. But there are some gender differences in the social life which is also visible from this study.

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