Abuse of the Senior Citizens in Goa: An Exploratory Study

Crimes against senior citizens are a burgeoning issue that requires urgent attention in our society. Old age is a state of dependency where individuals depend financially on their families and society, making them vulnerable to financial abuse within and outside their family. Financial abuse is the most neglected form of abuse in comparison to physical, emotional and mental abuse. The study conducted in this paper shows how financial dependency is a significant cause of the problems and leads to other forms of abuse within and outside the family. The objective of this paper is to investigate the common forms of abuse experienced by elderly individuals in the case studies, specifically focusing on the exploitation of dependency and displacement from their property, unresolved property disputes and economic deprivation, and employment exploitation in an earlier phase. The results show that senior citizens face different forms of abuse, which has affected their health and well-being. The study also highlights the neglect of this abuse from society as there is no social support.