This paper is drawn from a larger study framed to explore, document, and understand the narratives of older adults living through the Covid-19 pandemic in urban India, funded by the Research Council, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The study aimed at complementing the excellent quantitative work initiated by fellow researchers both locally and globally, designed to generate large-scale data and patterns.
Research Design
Keeping in mind the objectives of the present study, an exploratory qualitative research design was best suited. Narrative analysis gives us a privileged position to witness and co-create an intimate and detailed look at the meaning-making practices and negotiations that individuals engage in (Coulter & Smith, 2009), making it an useful approach for understanding experiences lived through the time-space of the Covid-19 crisis). A narrative analysis approach provided insights into the perceptions and behavior of individuals, and helped bridge the gap between “What is impacted?” and “How was it impacted?” (Teti et al., 2020). Focusing on narratives of older adults provided representation of their lived experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. The approach has been complemented with the intersectionality framework to understand the storeyed narratives of older adults. By focusing on the narratives of individual participants we tried to foreground granular and nonpareil data that may otherwise fall through the margins of large-scale quantitative research (Lieblich, 2020).
Sample and Sampling Procedure
Keeping gender and socioeconomic status in mind, purposeful sampling was used for data gathering. This ensured the identification and selection of information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited resources. For the present study, the participants were nine men and nine women between 60 and 78 years.
To ensure a diverse sample, we tried to identify individuals living in cities, from varying socio-economic backgrounds and from different parts of the country. The participants were drawn from Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ernakulum, Kottayam, Shimla and Cochin. Residence patterns of the participants varied; some participants lived with family, while others lived alone. One participant lived in a cloister with other nuns. Another participant was a migrant worker who shared his living space with 10 other men. Our sample had individuals who had personally contracted Covid-19, or had a family member with Covid-19 and those who had not been directly exposed to the virus.
Process of Data Collection
Data collection was spread out over three months from February to April 2021 which coincided with the second wave of Covid-19 and with the start of the vaccination drive for the elderly. Interviews were carried out using audio/video calls as per the participants’ convenience; while others were held in person (observing Covid-19 safety precautions such as wearing a mask and ensuring physical distancing).
Interactions with participants was initiated through known contacts. Details of the study were explained in language adapted to suit each participant’s context and informed consent was sought. As participants agreed to participate in the study, the consent form and the participant information sheet was shared with them. A processual model of consent was followed.
The interviews
Data was collected with narrative interviews, followed by in-depth interviews. In the narrative interview, one, carefully-constructed question was asked, along the lines of, “What has the story of your life been since the Covid-19 pandemic began? What all happened to you?”, to orient the participants to talk about their personal experiences. Since the participants were encouraged to talk for as long as they would like, the duration of the narrative interview ranged from 25 minutes to one hour. Domains of inquiry were prepared to flesh out the participant’s story, and were used to elicit more detail in the in-depth interview. For example, changes brought about by pandemic, sense of safety and home, wellbeing of the participants, coping mechanisms, the vaccination process, etc.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the Institute Review Board of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Interviewers were trained in conducting narrative interviews with older adults in the local language. Informed consent was sought from the participants before data collection. The study objectives were explained to the research participants in an informal, easy-to-comprehend language with effort to minimize jargon.
The study discussed the stories of Covid-19 experiences that brought up grief, anxiety, and loss. This was challenging for participants, particularly in the absence of social support. Debriefing of participants was done to ensure that the process of data collection did not cause undue anxiety and stress. Names and contacts of counselors and therapists and other professionals and agencies were made available to the participants as required. Participants were referred to medical professionals and/or NGOs working with the elderly to provide support, as required.
Data Analysis
The data was analyzed using a thematic narrative framework, with an emphasis on the events and acts that the narrative reports, or “the told” (Riessman, 2008). Analysis began by transcription of the interviews, and translation into English. We worked with each participant’s narrative, isolating and ordering episodes into a chronological biographical account, or a ‘restory’. The researchers drafted timelines for each participant’s experience of the pandemic from early 2020 to April 2021 to ensure a chronological sequence of the events in the narrative.
Common trends emerged in the participants’ narratives, which were grouped into sub-themes, and then consolidated into overarching themes that brought out the overall experiences and attitudes.
What was home?
The pandemic witnessed changes in participants’ meanings of home. Economic privilege, gender, civil status and ableism mediated these experiences. In addition to the physical spaces that participants resided in, ‘home’ took on additional roles during the pandemic. We present some findings from our study, using verbatim quotes from our participants.
Participants called a variety of dwellings home. The type of residence varied depending on social class and geographical location. Respondents from the upper middle income lived in independent bungalows and large apartments. In contrast, respondents from the lower income group had smaller residences which accommodated many people.
Chirag (male, 61) and his wife lived in a bungalow with a garden and a chicken coop; his sons moved in to live with him during the pandemic. Kannan (male, 78) was forced to live alone in his spacious bungalow within a gated neighborhood. His cook lived in an attached servant quarter. Seetha (female, 63) lived alone in an independent house. Sunil (male, 78) also lived in an independent house with his wife and sister-in-law.
Yogesh (male, 65), Col Chand (male, 71), Manish (male, 73) and Meena (female, 67) lived in apartments in high rise buildings in affluent neighborhoods with their family. Col Chand and Manish had live-in domestic staff. Kiran (female, 69) and Mahima (female, 73) lived in an apartment complex with their families. Nan (female, 65) lived in an apartment; during the pandemic she and her husband had moved in with her brother-in-law and his wife in their home.
Shobhana (female, 68) lived in a small four-room house with her two adult sons and their families. Kunju (male, 72) and his wife lived in a two-room dwelling. Radha (female, 65) lived in a shack close to the tea shop that she ran; during the pandemic she had moved into her daughter’s home. Rattan (male, 65) shared a room in the city with ten other men from his village. Prior to his wife’s death, Shyam (male, 65), his wife, his son and daughter had all lived in two-rooms which were the servant’s quarters of the bungalow where his wife worked as a cook. After his wife’s death, Shyam and his children were compelled to move out, to a shack adjacent to the bungalow. Sr Alice (female, 60) lived in a cloister on the church compound with eleven other nuns.
Figure 1
Changing Meanings of Home
House vs. home
Home can mean more than a dwelling or a physical structure. It is the site of emotion and connections, of belonging and safety. For several participants, this meant having multiple locations referred to as ‘home’. Rattan was a migrant in the city where he made his living as a fruit vendor. He had two spaces he referred to as ‘home’; the living quarters he shared with 10 others in the city and his ‘home’ back in the village. Even though he was close to his flat-mates, Rattan took his first opportunity he got to return to his village. Rattan’s family expressed concern over phone calls, pleading with him to return to the village. The curbs on inter-state travel meant that he had to pay an exorbitant amount to travel home. Emotional safety for Rattan lay first with his family in the village and was more precious to him than the financial security during perilous times.
The pandemic brought about an extreme shift in Shyam’s sense of home. After the death of his wife from Covid-19, he had to shift from his house to a makeshift hut, causing a literal “uprooting” of his home. Home grew to be a space that he wanted to escape from as it brought up painful memories for Shyam:
Because, for me staying at home is … just that... if you stay home your mind runs to different places. That is why in the morning… even on a holiday I never stay at home, I go out somewhere. I pass time somehow, and then come back home in the evening. (Shyam, 65)
For Sr. Alice, despite renunciation of the material world and living in a convent, the crisis of Covid-19 highlighted family ties that bind. The pandemic brought up feelings of worry and anxiety about nuns living with her in the convent and about relatives in her family home.
“Shifting” homes during the pandemic
Some participants were compelled to shift to a different home while others chose to live elsewhere. Before the pandemic, Radha was living in a makeshift, rented space and referred to this space as “living quarters”. During the lockdown, she moved in with her daughter and grand-daughters, despite her preference for being independent and living by herself:
I haven’t lived with them at all, after all these years, I haven’t even lived with them for a day...I felt maybe I must live with them at that time and my daughter too told me, ‘why don’t you come and live with us for a month’...that’s how I went to live there and a lot of people were surprised I managed to live there for a month...it’s because all these years even during difficult times, I have never tried to go and live with them. (Radha, 65)
Shyam experienced multiple losses at home. After his wife’s death he had to move out of the quarters provided to the family from his wife’s employers to a makeshift hut. For Rattan, as his fruit selling business dwindled in the city, he returned to his village at significant cost to live with his family.
It was when Nan and her husband were visiting her brother-in-law’s family, that the nation-wide lockdown was announced. This compelled them to stay for the duration of the lockdown, making do with borrowed clothing and other items. What had been meant to be a brief weekend visit ended up being a stay of four months as they chose to extend their stay. She seemed to enjoy living with her relatives and did not express any significant stress emanating from this change of home, apart from a worry about the plants in her apartment.
Homes as influenced by local governance systems
Homes were nested in systems of neighborhood, community and state which impacted the participants’ experience. For participants living in neighborhoods with a resident welfare association (RWA) access to groceries and services were mediated by the RWA. Mandates were issued to RWAs to monitor Covid-19 cases in the buildings, which was used for declaring the area a containment zone if necessary (MoHFW, 2020). Meena lived in an affluent high-rise with access to many facilities. However, during the lockdown her RWA imposed strict rules which were inconveniently designed, without thought to the needs of the elderly and the disabled. Delivery persons were forbidden from using the elevators; so she was forced to carry a gas cylinder up to her home on the 9th floor. Similar issues were mentioned by Yogesh who also lived in a high-rise building, with strict rules laid down by the RWA supposedly for the benefit of the residents. He found these rules to be infringing on his movements and limiting his daily walks.
Radha lived in a shack adjacent to the tea stall that she operated. Both the tea stall and her shack were on the premises of a lorry weighing station, and the owner made decisions about when to reopen after lockdown was relaxed, the working hours, how to dispense the tea, what to sell, and the decision to get the vaccination. Rattan was an unregistered migrant worker. The lockdown meant that he had no access to aid from the the local government and he traveled back to his village at great personal cost.
Home as a place for isolation and quarantine
Manish contracted Covid-19 when he was hospitalized for a non-Covid related medical problem. He had to quarantine in a separate room at home for 14 days and he was worried about infecting other members of his family. Fortunately, his apartment had enough rooms to allow Manish and his family to enforce the strict safety measures laid down, such as, no contact with family members, keeping meals outside the door of the isolation room, using disposable paper plates. He expressed that the isolation and the forced separation felt unnatural, though he rallied:
It was a bit deserted and different, but it was not like normal life, but, uh, you have to be mentally strong to overcome that. If you get involved in that, and depression, then you are going to have a lot of problems. So I took it. It is a part of life. (Manish,73)
The quarantine was possible for Manish due to the size of his apartment and because he lived with his family who took care of his needs. Other participants were not fortunate enough to have sufficient space to quarantine should the need arise. According to Sobhana, the effects of Covid-19 and the lockdowns were worse for the poor as compared to the affluent. She lamented, “We are impoverished, people who have money, even if they contract some illness they can handle it, for us it’s an additional burden.”
One home many functions - gymnasium, salon, work place…
Since the lockdown restrictions meant that the participants were not able to go outside for walks, the home became a gymnasium for Yogesh, Manish, Sunil, Kiran, Mahima, and Uma. Participants with economic privilege were able to access to a park, refuge area or terrace in their buildings and neighborhoods; while others had few such alternatives. For Yogesh, home became his office as he transitioned to working from home. He took calls and meetings from a makeshift office set up in his dining room. Home was also serving as a salon. Yogesh’s wife gave him haircuts at home. For Nan, whose beauty parlor closed during the lockdown, home became a salon where she and her sisters-in-law did each other's hair and nails.
Home as a fortress
For some, home was a protective bubble that kept them safe from the pandemic. Yogesh referred to his home as an ‘antiseptic bubble’ that shielded him from contracting the virus. He mentioned how he would ‘peep out’ before leaving this fortress, to ensure that he was not exposed to the infection, from an infected person, or a contaminated object. Seetha too barricaded herself in her home and refused to allow any visitors or vendors to come in, despite challenges in managing alone and feelings of loneliness.
The lockdown marooned people at home and travel restrictions added to feelings of isolation. Kannan, was living alone in Bangalore for almost a full year, while his wife and daughter were in Mumbai. The imposition of lockdown restrictions prevented Kannan from joining his wife and daughter in Mumbai. He expressed,
And cooking, shopping. And I'm sweeping. I'm washing clothes, of course, it is in the washing machine, but nevertheless, have to go up to the terrace and hang it up, and these were a little problematic. Yes. physical exertion was to great extent. And of course, mental trauma that you are all alone. (Kannan, 78)
Even for participants who had family living in the same city, lockdown restrictions increased the feelings of being cut-off from others. Meena was deeply saddened at not being able to visit her daughter, even when she contracted Covid-19. Despite being in the same city, she could not help her daughter, and she felt extremely helpless. Mahima shared, “It felt as though there was nobody else, no duniya. It's just me and my family. Nobody else. I had gotten cut off from everyone else.” For her home felt like an island that was isolated from the rest of the world. While she was grateful to have been shielded from the virus, the disruption in her interaction with the rest of the world led to loneliness and a sense of isolation.
Home alone
For Seetha her home was a fortress that warded off the Covid-19 infection. Her limited mobility and feelings of mistrust towards others made her feel safest at home. Her physical limitations impeded her in carrying out certain household chores. In the initial days of the lockdown her help-maid was unable to report for work, which increased her feelings of isolation. She felt the need to be constantly vigilant to avoid the virus; she discouraged anyone from visiting her home. Kannan was forced to live alone as his wife went to live with his daughter before the lockdown started. This led to an unplanned and prolonged separation from his family leading to feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression. Rattan the fruit vendor found living alone in the city unbearable, his roommates had all left the city, and he too fled to the village at the earliest opportunity.
Challenges in sharing space with family
Some participants struggled to share space with family members during the lockdown. Sobhana’s adult children lived with her and were home all day during the lockdown. She practiced a different religion from her older son’s family which led to a certain friction in her household, especially when she prayed or watched religious programs on TV. For Shyam the lockdown was a tense time as the entire family was confined to the house. He could not set up his wristwatch repair stall, nor could his son and daughter go to work due to Covid-19 restrictions. This led to everyone in the two-room house quarrelling incessantly. The conflict was very serious at times, and the palpable intensification in tension at home led to an increase in his alcohol consumption.
For Uma, home began to feel ‘awkward’ with her husband's constant presence. Before the pandemic, her husband was not often home and the lockdown brought about a sudden shift. Their dissimilarities became starkly apparent during this enforced time together:
Talking about my husband, his interests and mine are poles apart. He watches Carnatic music concerts and Animal Planet, while I have no interest in those things. Even at home, we were separate, we have two separate room and we have two separate TVs too. When we go out, we usually go together, but when we are home we are separate, so during this time, I felt like we were separated than before. (Uma, 68)
Welcome togetherness with family
A unique perspective emerged from some of the older adults living with children during the lockdown. In a reverse of the empty nest syndrome, participants found their children and grandchildren spending more time with them than before. As a grandparent, this new arrangement of work and schooling from home made room for conversations and sharing in daily chores. Families grew closer together and participants felt more connected to family members than before. Prior to the lockdown, Kiran had often found herself lonely and home alone. With the commencement of online classes and work from home, there was a transformation in her home from one that was lonely to one filled with a sense of togetherness, with the family sharing meals, talking and playing cards. Before the lockdown Kiran’s social life was confined to a daily visit to the park in the colony to sing bhajans with other women, which came to a standstill with the lockdown. The lockdown meant that Kiran would have her family members available during the day to talk with, watch TV with and eat meals with:
It felt very good. Everyone would talk together, watch TV together, have breakfast together, have lunch together. The evening tea would be together, and the dinner was with everyone sitting together… I felt very good that all my children are with me. (Kiran, 69)
Chirag also welcomed having time with his sons as they returned home during the pandemic. Radha derived satisfaction from being able to help her daughter out and take care of her granddaughters by moving in with them.