In the quiet corners of many Indian homes, a troubling paradox is unfolding: parents shoulder lifelong burdens to secure their children’s futures, yet some adult children eagerly claim the rewards while shunning the costs. This selective embrace of inheritance (assets yes, liabilities no) is eroding the very essence of family duty and demands urgent societal reflection.

For decades, countless parents have toiled relentlessly. They rise before dawn and rest long after dusk, often through failing health, to fund the essentials: children’s higher education, life-saving medical treatments, daughters’ and sons’ marriages, daily household survival, and the quiet dignity of social obligations. Loans from banks and private lenders are not taken lightly or for indulgence. They represent profound sacrifice when no other path remains. Parents endure these debts believing family is a shared journey: one generation lifts the next, and support flows both ways.

Yet in too many cases, this belief proves one-sided. As parents age, grappling with mounting EMIs, hospital visits, and emotional isolation, adult children often drift away. Independent lives in cities take precedence. Visits grow infrequent, financial help sporadic or absent. Responsibility is deferred indefinitely.

The shift comes sharply when inheritance enters the conversation: land, homes, savings, jewellery. Suddenly, distance vanishes. Shares are meticulously calculated, claims asserted with urgency. But the debts that enabled those very assets? They become inconvenient. Questions arise: Why so many loans? Was it necessary? In extreme instances, these burdens are aired publicly, tarnishing the reputation of parents who borrowed solely for family welfare. The unwritten rule emerges chillingly clear: assets belong to the family; liabilities belong to the parents alone.

This imbalance inflicts deep harm. Surviving spouses face relentless financial strain and humiliation. Vulnerable dependents, younger unmarried siblings, dependent widows, see educations interrupted, marriages postponed, basic security threatened. When parents pass away amid unresolved debts, the fallout lands heaviest on those least able to bear it. Some children even calculate coldly: helping now costs more than settling later, reducing cherished lives to mere financial equations. Parents are not ledgers to be audited. They are the architects of futures now claimed without gratitude.

Such patterns cannot remain private matters. When disputes erupt publicly, when debts become weapons of shame, when innocents suffer from selective neglect, the issue turns societal. Existing safeguards, notably the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, rightly mandate children’s support for elderly parents and allow tribunals to enforce maintenance or even eviction of neglectful heirs from parental property. Yet these remedies are largely curative, kicking in after fractures have deepened, often dragging families through prolonged, bitter litigation.

Prevention, not litigation, holds the key. It is time for administrative imagination at the grassroots level. District authorities, including in Jammu and Kashmir, should establish dedicated Family Responsibility and Mediation Cells. These bodies could function as early-intervention mechanisms in disputed successions:

– Mandate verification of family-incurred liabilities and identification of dependents before final property mutation or transfer.

– Institute temporary safeguards, ring-fencing funds for ongoing education, healthcare, or marriage expenses of vulnerable younger members.

– Review debts taken for bona fide family welfare (education, medical, marriage) as integral to equitable division.

– Facilitate structured mediation to protect elderly surviving spouses and ensure basic dignity without courtroom battles.

Such cells would not punish families or invade privacy. They would uphold fairness, preserve harmony, and shield the vulnerable from becoming collateral in inheritance wars. Above all, they would affirm a timeless truth: rights and responsibilities are indivisible.

Mr. Malik Haider Ali , Assistant Professor at CSE Department, Akal University, Bathinda, Punjab.

Dr. Harjeet Singh, Assistant Professor of History, Department of Education, Akal University, Bathinda, Punjab.

© Greater Kashmir