Elderly women in India

India has had a strong tradition of reverence for its elderly going back thousands of years.

Post independence, almost all of the country's leaders have been senior citizens - strengthening the public view that to be old is to be wise and powerful. But that's changing.

The elderly are no longer the heads of their families, cases of abandonment and abuse by children and grandchildren are rising. The Indian government has now brought in a new law to protect this vulnerable group.

For Assignment, Tinku Ray finds out why so many of India's elderly are literally being treated as rubbish by their own loved ones.



Listen to the programme