Abandoned Elders

A new old age home in Ganderbal is a lifeline for Kashmir’s abandoned parents—but behind its cold walls lie stories of neglect, disinheritance and the slow collapse of a once-sacred family structure.

- Mohammad Hanief

For years, a silver-haired man has appeared like a wandering mystic in Srinagar, his trembling hands punctuating a manic monologue: “I was thrown out of my home by my son...”

This raging revelation is no longer rare in Kashmir. Outside the city's high-security media hub, elderly men often shuffle in and out with photographs of land documents in their pockets. Most of them tell tales of treachery and the growing homelessness in Kashmir.

To shelter these persons wronged by their loved ones, the government on May 20, 2025 inaugurated Kashmir's first government-run old age home in Pandach, just 12 kilometres from the city centre.

The structure offers a safe haven for the region's abandoned elderly. It comes not a moment too soon.

But for those who've lost not just shelter but the meaning of family, the opening is also a mirror to a deeper tragedy.

It began quietly. First with separate kitchens, then locked doors, then lawyers.

“Now sons evict parents like tenants,” says Bilal Ahmad, a property lawyer who has handled dozens of such cases in recent years. “The shame is gone. I've had sons show me documents transferring land titles from their fathers—and the next day, filing for restraining orders to keep them out.”

Some sons bring their wives into it; others blame them.

“This culture of the nagging wife is becoming an excuse,” says Farhat Shah, a retired school principal. “But in truth, our sons are choosing comfort over conscience.”

Last year, an elderly man and his wife were filmed being beaten by their own son on the streets of Srinagar. The video, shared widely on social media, showed the man being kicked to the lane while his wife screamed nearby. The reason: a dispute over property.