Study in schools reveals bonding pattern with grandparents

The study was conducted by the Social Entrepreneurship and Consultancy Cell of the Symbiosis Institutes of Business Management (SIBM).

Around 20 MBA students of SIBM participated in the study undertaken as part of a project named after Shrawan,a known in mythology for devotion to parents.

Nuclear families and senior citizens were the focus of the study based on feedback from students aged between 9 and 14.

“We chose certain age group to study emotional bonding with grandparents and its effect in overall state of mind. Our objective was to study family patterns with focus on alienation of senior citizens from nuclear families,” SIBM’s Social Entrepreneurship and Consultancy Cell director Vivek Sane said.

The growing role of women in raising income for families has also been highlighted in the study,which had more than 50 per cent of those surveyed having working mothers.

Commenting on the findings,Prabhakar Beedkar,a senior citizen,said,“Money is finding more importance today than relations. Earning youth often migrate for better income and leave parents behind in the process. Senior citizens act as a buffer to family and should not be left alone and lonely.”

Bonding in numbers

40% students surveyed from English medium schools said grandparents live without the support of family,while the figure was 20% for students in Marathi

Medium schools

81% students of civic schools live with grandparents

63% students of private schools live with grandparents