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Chairman
Dr. D. G. Mukherjee, Director
Institute of Psychiatry, SSKM Hospital
Dilip Kumar Sinha
Ex-Vice Chancellor, Viswa Bharati University
Ours is a period, whatever be the domain of contemporaneity, that keeps on witnessing sorts of intergenerational divide in a variety of ways. It appears to be naive to rake up issues on economic benefits for retirees; of course, legitimate problems on social welfare, on wider contexts, can hardly be dispensed with. One has to reeckon with an inexhaustibly enormous repository of experiences; indeed, they, form a workforce which has had a kind of 'social contract', whatever be the complexion. One can now pose a question : hasn't the moment arrived to make a beginning so as to move on to the culture of emerging Information Age? How to get it well facilitated without any deprivation? The much - talked about 'entitlement' issue may well be raised; so is the issue on 'equity', particularly as a pressing one between generations. How to maximize opportunities for the elderly groups to contribute to community, by sharing realities and aspirations of young neighbours, rather than being warehoused among hundreds or thousands of other old people? There exist segments of society, and teachers, in particular, who have, doubtless, an edge over others because of continuing interactions with younger groups over decades. Doesn't it warrant a social contract to do away with intergenerational strifes, if any ? Credibility of some elderly groups seems to be at stake, perhaps because of the so -called shaping of career-profiles. Perhaps, there is now a greater need than ever before, to go in for a fresh approach to develop an overriding social welfare framework. This is not to imply that the younger group is not receptive; their innovation strides have become all the more fuelled because of diversities of technology. In alternative terms, one can well say that some people intensely desire to devote their late years of lives to give back to the society in a variety of ways; certainly, by caring for the very young, the very needy or even, for the old. One can definitely multiply a host of exemplars where such linkages are discernibly inspiring to move further. Goodwill and co-operation often promote activities and programmes in this direction. In the literature on gerontology, one finds volunteerism to be a chief ingredient of endeavours in these areas. One does not find any lack of repleteness on such scores, particularly, when volunteerism is assuming new forms, without being stuck up, in any way, with tokenism on altruism, philanthropy etc. The overriding issue is to explore for wherewithal, not in banal terms, that can lead to possible convergences between generations, grappling with issues of their own sectors, and not just seeking to bring about rapprochement, if so desired, of one kind or the other. This presentation pleads for delineation of some forms of enabling mechanisms, certainly on a continuing basis, so that generations, seemingly distressed, can not only overcome divergences but are capable of sharing evolutionary traits. That there exist intrinsicalities has to be probed with some flavour of profundity. A correspondence between leading elements of the two such sectors of the community has to be sought. Thus, one ought to take recourse to 'spirituality' with attributes of 'mapping'. This, in turn, cannot but be a basic tenet of 'aging' vis a vis 'greening', which seem to be going by default, perhaps, on account of not delving deeper in the context of evolving 'spirituality' between these segments of the society. The evolution is a necessity because of complexities and non-linearities has to be brought to the fore. That a spirited content and a strategy as well, ought to be embedded in layerred structures of the society has also to be dealt with, besides being socially intertwined with the ehics and ethos, too.
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