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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Loneliness epidemic has come to India too. Start building emotional infrastructure

Loneliness is India’s next big social crisis. The question is not how to bring back old systems, but how to create new kinds of connectedness for the modern world.

Loneliness is often perceived as a Western problem in India. Something that happens to people living in the ageing societies of Europe or hyper-individualistic America. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, loneliness has become one of the social realities of urban India. The change is partly demographic, but it is also economic. Emotional absence is creating a new “loneliness economy.”

Joint family, shared care responsibility, and community participation were once emotional safety nets. That’s changing. People are now paying for things that the previous generations might have taken for granted.

Loneliness is engendering completely new types of consumption. In Indian cities, businesses today are increasingly moving into the territory of family and community. Senior living communities make the claim of “companionship lifestyles”. Emotional wellness subscriptions are available from start-ups. Internet therapy platforms are growing at a steady rate. Cafés are not just places to get coffee or tea; they are “community spaces.” Belonging is as much a part of co-working spaces’ advertising as productivity.

Yet, even as the market has started responding to the need for connection, the subject is absent from policy discourse. “Emotional infrastructure” is usually not part of governance deliberations. That’s soon going to be a problem.

Also Read: How India’s seniors are fighting loneliness—Love, loss, and logins

The price of disconnection

With economic development has come a reorganisation of human relationships. Nuclear families are gradually replacing joint families in urban India, and migration keeps parents and children apart.

This is happening even as our population ages rapidly. The United Nations estimates that the elderly population in India will grow to........

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