During the prolonged Covid pandemic lockdown of India’s education institutions — the longest worldwide — the nurturing and supportive role that grandparents play in developing children into happy and confident adults has come into sharp focus, writes R. Poornima Dilip & Cynthia John During the on-and-off Covid-19 lockdowns of the past two years, India’s child daycare centres, preschools and schools were shuttered under the most prolonged — and ill-advised — lockdown worldwide. As millions of housemaids and nannies were stuck in their own homes and middle class parents struggled to balance work-from-home with household chores, the country’s silver generation — grandparents past the nation’s too-early retirement age (62-65) — stepped forward to keep home fires burning and help children with online schooling and provide socio-emotional support. During the long lonely pandemic months, grandparents spent more time than ever before, entertaining, playing with and teaching their grandchildren. Increasingly after being prematurely put out to pasture in the world’s youngest nation (average age: 28), grandparents demonstrated their socio-economic value and earned renewed respect from their children and society. In sharp contrast with Western mores, until very recently the joint family system was normative in the Indian subcontinent, and arguably in Asia. But during the past half century, Western influence, the emancipation of women and rise of nuclear households diminished the role of grandparents. However, during the prolonged Covid pandemic lockdown of India’s education institutions — the longest worldwide — the nurturing and supportive role that grandparents play in developing children into happy and confident adults has come into sharp focus. Nor are virtues of India’s traditional joint family being re-discovered only in the subcontinent. Around the world the number of multigenerational households is growing. An estimated 4.5-5 million children live with their grandparents in the US. A study by the Bank of Scotland indicates that 44 percent of households in that dominion relies on grandparents to care for children. In India, an estimated 16 percent of the country’s 260 million households are joint families. “As parents of a three-year-old, our lives would have been miserable without my parents’ support. During the past two years of the pandemic, they took turns every three months to take care of our son. Without their help we wouldn’t have been able to combine work-from-home and child care. We are grateful for all the risks they took during the pandemic to keep our family happy,” says Shwethashree S, a test engineer in a reputed Bengaluru-based software company. Rashmi Bajpai, a Delhi-based content writer and blogger, concurs. “During the lockdown, I had to work from home. Writing needs a lot of concentration and peace, and became possible only because my father-in-law took charge of both my children. He supervised their online classes, played games with them and also told them valuable stories rooted in Indian culture and traditions. We are blessed to have him in our lives,” says Bajpai. Shamantha K, counseling psychologist, Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru, believes that the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic which hugely disrupted household routines, has…
