Social Disengagements Among Retired Pensioners

Ageing within the social system undergoes the process of disengagement. This process of disengagement is highlighted in the theory of disengagement by Crossman (2017). His observation goes as “complete disengagement happens when both the individual and society are ready for this to occur. A disjunction between the two will occur when one is ready but not the other, and a person is ready to disengage when they are aware of the short time remaining in their life and they no longer wish to fulfil their current social roles”. With the disengagement of the elderly in focus, more particularly those retired from regular employment, this particular study was carried out. An attempt was made to find out whether the social and health characteristics of the elderly such as gender, age, family system and health make any difference in the pensioners while performing their social roles after retirement. Exactly two hundred and one pensioners from the Pensioners’ Association in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India, were selected to participate in this study. The results of the study indicate the state of physical functioning of both male and female elderly as they advance in age. It further shows that the male and female pensioners do not have any differences in disengagement, but there is an increased level of disengagement observed among the pensioners in the age between 76 and 80. Pensioners living in joint family and nuclear family setups are equally disengaged as also the pensioners living in their own houses and rented houses. But in terms of health, pensioners with more than 5 morbidity issues are sensing a greater amount of disengagement as their physical disability does not allow them to carry out their role occupancy. A hypothetical statement namely “disengagement is higher among the elder pensioners than the younger pensioners” is confirmed. Therefore, as the pensioners keep ageing, their inability to perform their social roles deteriorates, and they get disengaged from many social functioning. Moreover, the number of children, grandchildren, years of service rendered prior to retirement and social and income generation activities has reflected in the disengagement of the retired pensioners. The pensioners, who have multi-morbidities, undergo reduced social interactions and support and, thus, this factor complements the disengagement theory of ageing, which posits their withdrawals from social life.