Demographic and epidemiological shifts, family structure, and elder care in India:
How are Indian families navigating new terrain?
Dr. Ghosh specializes in the study of disability and caregiving across the life course. She is primarily interested in studying how long-term caregiving affects the wellbeing of families, globally. Her current work specifically investigates the experiences of caregivers to elderly with a disabling condition in India, exploring care related issues in the context of shifting demographic and epidemiological patterns. Caregiving is emerging as a public health issue globally, especially in developing countries like India, doubly burdened with communicable and non-communicable diseases. Coupled with changing demographic shift, and increased life-expectancy, a question arises- “who will care for the elderly with disability in India?” A culture that values family care much is needed to understand how caregiving is conceptualized, to shape formal long-term care services. The talk would focus on findings from a mixed method study on caregiving of aging adults with disability in India. Results from the study would be of interest to sociologists, family studies professionals, public health and global health researchers, and has implications to shape elder care services and develop interventions to a rapidly growing population, who are living longer, but not necessarily healthier.
Subharati Ghosh, Ph.D., MSW, is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Dr. Ghosh completed her doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Social Work, 10′, USA and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, USA. She has been a Primary Investigator of several studies that explore issues around caregiving and disability in India and has several publications and book chapters to her credit. She recently received the prestigious NASI- Elsevier & Scopus Young Scientist Award, 2015 for her contribution to Social Sciences in India.