Is abandoning your parents illegal in India?

India Today

A woman was left on the roadside, covered like a corpse. A son caught beating his mother in Kota. In India, this isn’t just cruel — it’s a crime.

Transcript

00:00Is it legal to abandon your parents in India?

00:03Watch closely, a man and woman get down from a rickshaw carrying an old lady.

00:07She's frail, not really moving.

00:10They don't take her inside, instead they leave her on the side of the road.

00:13Then they do something hard to watch.

00:15They cover her entire body with a bedsheet, head to toe and they walk away.

00:20This lady then returns to push the bedsheet off her face.

00:23And if that wasn't horrifying enough, here's what happened in Kota.

00:27A grown son beat his elderly mother, pulled her hair, strangled her and punched her.

00:32When his younger brother and sister-in-law tried to stop him, he shoved them as well.

00:36These visuals are not only disturbing, they also amount to a criminal offence.

00:41India has a law for exactly these cases.

00:44It's called the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

00:49Section 24 of the Act makes the kind of abandonment we saw in Ayodhya a criminal offence.

00:54If you leave a parent or senior citizen with the intention to abandon them,

00:57you can be sent to jail for up to 3 months, fine 5000 rupees or both.

01:02But it's not just about abandonment.

01:04The law also says that children are legally responsible for the financial care of their parents,

01:09up to 10,000 rupees a month depending on what the parent needs.

01:13And if a parent gave away property or assets on the promise of care and is then dumped,

01:18that transfer can be legally cancelled.

01:21A small flashback here.

01:22So India adopted its first policy for older citizens in 1999.

01:26As longer life expectancy and the collapse of joint families left many parents unsupported.

01:31Himachal Pradesh in 2001 adopted the Maintenance of Parents and Dependence Act.

01:35By 2007, what was once a moral duty became law nationwide, mandating children to care for aging parents.

01:42As per the latest figures, India has 14 crore people aged 60 and above.

01:46And in a 2023 survey by Helbridge India, 71% of elders said they felt neglected, abused or abandoned by their own families.

01:55In 2023, the government's elder helpline 14567 received over 1.5 lakh distress calls.

02:02Most of them are about abandonment, property disputes or emotional abuse by children.

02:07And here's the kicker, fewer than 10% of these cases ever go to court.

02:10Because most parents, they still believe their kids will come back.

02:13While parents keep waiting, what drives one to abandon their parents?

02:17It's not always one reason, it's layers.

02:20In cities, rising costs, which includes rent, school fees, AMIs, make elderly parents feel like a burden sometimes.

02:26Some can't afford their care, others just don't want to.

02:30So yes, it's illegal to abandon your parents, but think back to that woman left on the roadside.

02:35Think of the mother in Kota beaten by her own son.

02:37Those weren't just crimes.

02:39They were moments that should never have needed a law.

02:41So maybe the real question isn't, is this legal?

02:44But what does it say about us that we need a law to remind us not to leave our parents behind?

02:49I'm Mahesha Vikali.

02:51First things first.

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