Naval architect Jayanta Roy, 44, lives with his family in their Kolkata home. There's wife Rupa, 39, son Deepro, 10, and parents, Kalyan Kumar, 65, and Kana, 65. In October 2007, Kalyan had to be hospitalised with respiratory trouble. Since he has no medical insurance, Jayanta had to pay the Rs 20,000 for his treatment. But the Rs 1,000 or so worth of medicines Kalyan and his wife need each month is paid for from his pension of Rs 8,500. 

While Jayanta is financially vulnerable to his parents' medical emergencies, at an emotional level he and his parents are glad that he can help during their moments of need. But life is never that simple. Jayanta's own financial needs are swelling. He has to pay home loan EMIs of Rs 17,000 for 14 more years, and Deepro's education costs are looming. He doubts that he is prepared to be, 25 years later, where his father is today

 

 

India's emerging 'Sandwich Generation'. Jayanta is part of India's emerging 'sandwich generation'. It comprises, says the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, people caring for their ageing parents and supporting their own children. The term is a US coinage of the Seventies that gained enough currency to be included in the dictionary. People have dealt with being sandwiched for generations, but with the social structure changing this set is facing new challenges and must prepare for it differently. 

What's Creating the Sandwich Generation? 

Rise of nuclear families. Based on Census of India data, Bert N. Adams and Jan Trost, in Handbook of World Families, say the percentage of Indian households that are joint families has declined from 20 per cent in 1981 to about 18.50 per cent in 2001. Simultaneously, the percentage of nuclear families has risen from 68.10 per cent to 70.40 per cent. In other words, more and more Indian adults are staying away from their parents. In many cases, that's limiting their concern to those that they live with. 

Increased job mobility. Helping the creation of nuclear families is work-related mobility, which has increased over the same period and continues to do so. Experts say that people joining the workforce today will end their careers after having been in as many as 15 jobs, not all of them in one place. This, along with increasing urbanisation and industrialisation of India, traditionally a catalyst for growth of nuclear families, is breaking up the joint family system.