More and more Britons feel alone in a crowd, so their Government has stepped in
Perhaps it has something to do with being an island nation or possibly the terribly depressing weather but Britain has finally decided to come to grips with the epidemic of loneliness across the country by appointing a Minister with the loneliness portfolio. Her brief is to improve the nation’s social and mental health index. The Minister for loneliness, as Tracy Couch has already been dubbed, is expected to inspire the nation’s lonely people to take to the shrink’s couch with the aim of ultimately getting off it for good. Britain — once proud of its empire on which the Sun never set and today a welfare state which prides itself on having ensured a compassionate social health programme for its subjects — has found that more than nine million British people often or always feel lonely. This, despite an already existing system of volunteers who visit homes of single people on a regular basis to provide companionship and care.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has decided to flag and take on this demographic disadvantage head on by admitting loneliness as a sad reality of modern life, populated as it is increasingly by atomised, deracinated individuals with rapidly diminishing familial and kinship networks against the backdrop of a vacuous cultural context. What rung alarm bells in the British establishment was the finding that the damage chronic loneliness does to our bodies, with experts saying it is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, as dangerous as obesity and increases the likelihood of an early death by 26 per cent. Recent psychological reviews have also pointed to the contribution of loneliness in causing depression, anxiety, diabetes, cardio vascular issues, stress, trauma and diminished longevity. What’s more, research has revealed that loneliness is not just an issue for older people but is prevalent among the younger generation too, who tethered to their multi-media devices, are bereft of emotional cohesion in existing relationships and have shown a marked inability to establish communicative and supportive relationships. Senior citizens, who are the loneliest, the new Minister has said can be as much of a productive human resource in a nation as the youth and Britain has signalled it will not let this category of older citizens fade away just because they feel unwanted. Though no national survey has been done in India on the subject, private surveys among senior citizens have revealed that one in every two elderly Indians suffers from acute feelings of loneliness. Be they empty-nesters or retired people, loneliness is as much an epidemic in these parts though strong family ties mitigate the crisis somewhat especially in non-metro India. The elderly care industry in India does everything from organising volunteers to do chores, providing round-the-clock medical help and providing other services geared towards ease of living, albeit for a price. But there is nobody providing the cushion of companionship, which really can't be bought. Unlike the West, we do not have a sense of rationalising our work-life balance and it is the lack of social contact beyond the competitive routine of performance that leads to loneliness. Psychologists believe that interactions enhance not only self-worth but mutual interdependence helps you transcend self-centeredness which can consume you in an implosive sort of way. Social health may not seem to strike the authorities as a policy priority, but it ought to. For all the lonely people.