Full Description
This book weaves together intersectional threads that underlie the experiences of older men and women in India during the Covid-19 pandemic. While older adults were considered particularly vulnerable to the scourge of the pandemic, there is scant first-hand evidence about how they understood the pandemic and how they were affected by it. Data about the effects of the virus on this population, as communicated by the government and the press, resulted in reductive/problematic narratives that shaped and colored their lives. The intersectional lens used in the book highlights the differential impacts of poverty, (dis)ability, gender, civil status, and health status on the experiences of older adults during the pandemic. This book brings forth first-person narratives of older adults navigating the Covid-19 pandemic in India. It is a handy ready reckoner for mental health and medical professionals, students in qualitative research methods, psychology, social work, geriatric medicine, health and public health, and public administration. The book's findings are provocative and generate curiosity about the lives and experiences of an age category seldom focused on.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction and Review of Literature - Intersections of Covid-19 and Older Adults in India. - Chapter 2: Methodology - Doing Narrative research with Older Adults in India during the Pandemic. - Chapter 3: Introducing the Participants of the study - Glimpses into the worlds of Kannan, Sister Alice, Seetha, and Rattan.- Chapter 4: Origin stories of the virus - Making Sense of Covid-19.- Chapter 5: Interruptions of Life caused by Covid-19 - Everyday routine, worship, work, medical care, travel and meeting loved ones.- Chapter 6: Stories of Strength and Coping: Individual and Systemic Response to Covid-19.- Chapter 7: Multiplicity of Losses due to Covid-19: Fears, grief, loneliness, questioning god and the government. Chapter 8: To Jab or Not to Jab - Questions and Concerns about the Covid-19 Vaccine.- Chapter 9: Finale - Resetting the way we live.
