KLN Award

The KLN Award recognizes individuals, social catalysts, who through their work have made notable
contributions to enhancing the dignity, care, and well-being of elders in India.

Economic reorganization and reform in India has brought with it an attendant shift in social
organization, with the nuclear family now increasingly the base unit. As Indian society transitions away
from the joint / extended family providing for the care of all of its members from birth to death, elders
face the brunt of the many challenges involved in that shift. Elders who relied on the social security net
implicit in joint and extended families, find that net disappearing or shrinking as a nuclear family
becomes the norm, especially in larger urban areas. In the absence of a credible and adequately funded
state-sponsored social security system, elders without pensions, savings, or other sources of income find
themselves at risk in terms of their overall well-being. Older, especially widowed women, who have
spent their lives as home-makers and care-givers, increasingly see their quality of life deteriorate
sharply, forced to become responsible for their own care without an adequate support system. On the
spectrum of elder care concerns, large numbers of elders find themselves unable to adequately provide
for themselves, face social isolation or exclusion, deprivation and neglect, and an increasing risk and
occurrence of abuse.

Legislative efforts such as the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007,
penalize economic neglect or abandonment of parents and grandparents, and appears to be grounded
in the disappearing legacy of the joint/extended family as the base unit of social organization. This
disconnect in state policy reflects the social disconnect of an aspirational society that looks forward, and
seeks individual-centric economic opportunity and growth, and looks backward, nostalgically, to
retaining historical traditions of extended family kinships. The National Social Assistance Program of
1995, modeled on the failing generational-transfer based social security programs of advanced
economies, is largely symbolic and severely underfunded. Economic reality precludes state funding of
any meaningfully adequate social security net for elders. This impasse highlights the need for a discourse
that helps evolve India-specific solutions.

The KLN Award recognizes individuals who have, in their work, contributed to advancing the spectrum of
concerns related to elders and elder care.
Second KLN Award

The second recipient of the KLN Award is Dr. Mala Kapur Shankardass of New Delhi.

Dr. Mala Kapur Shankardass, of New Delhi, is Associate Professor of Sociology at Maitreyi College, Delhi
University, where she teaches at the graduate level.

In addition, Dr. Shankardass is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Adult Protection,
UK; the India and Asia Chair of the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse, a UN
consultative body; a member of the Core Group on Protection and Welfare of Elderly Persons, National
Human Rights Commission of India; a member of the governing body of the Alzheimer’s and Related
Disorders Society of India, Delhi Chapter; and member of the Planning Commission of India’s expert
group Aspirations for the Elderly in India, among others.

Dr. Shankardass has published extensively in academic journals and authored numerous articles in the
media on aging, elder abuse, and poverty amongst the elderly. Her work and writing carry an emphasis
on the greater vulnerability of women to the many issues that the elderly in general confront. She is the
author, most recently, of the book Growing Old in India: Voices Reveal and Statistics Speak.

While official statistics for elder abuse are not available and not collected by the Government of India,
anecdotal evidence of charities and NGOs suggests the occurrence of elder abuse is widespread and
growing in India. Dr Shankardass frames the problem thus: “we need to bring concerted effort to have
national studies on prevalence estimates of elder abuse and then move from awareness to action
towards interventions for reducing abuse and neglect by recognizing gender dimensions of the problem
and identifying risk factors. It is without doubt that … conceptual clarity on defining elder abuse has to
move more rapidly and education and training of researchers and practitioners has to be given lots of
attention”.

Dr. Shankardass has herself been giving the subject her own time and effort, as evidenced by her
extensive writing and speaking engagements. She has been at the forefront of understanding, and
raising awareness about, elder abuse and the many other issues faced by elders in India, and in
suggesting and formulating policy and societal responses. To quote Dr. Shankardass again:
“modernization, urbanization and technological change leading to urban migration, employment of
women outside the home, nuclear families – have undermined the traditional patterns of care of the
elderly, that is by the family.”

First KLN Award

The first KLN Award goes to Dr. Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy

Dr. Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy, a septuagenarian from Hyderabad, is a PhD in Library Science. During
his pre-retirement career, he set up and ran libraries and Information centers for academic, research,
and industrial organizations such as the Technical Teachers’ Training Institute, Madras, Informatics India,
Bangalore, and Indian Detonators, Satyam Computers, and ICICI Knowledge Park, Hyderabad.

Since retirement, Dr. Vyasamoorthy has been involved with Aging and Aged Care issues, and contributed
extensively to the literature of social gerontology. He started and moderates a Yahoo group for senior
citizens, SSS Global, that is currently ranked 1st in over 26,000 groups worldwide focused on seniors. Dr.
Vyasamoorthy maintains multiple blogs, moderates multiple discussion groups, and edits two online
dailies. He has written six e-books and numerous articles and papers. Dr. Vyasamoorthy maintains the
websites for the Association of Senior Citizens of Hyderabad and All India Senior Citizens Confederation,
where he also serves as an officer. Dr. Vyasamoorthy’s services to senior citizens were recognized by
citation by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2007, and he was awarded the Silver Innings-iCONGO
Karmaveer Chakra 2011 for Exceptional Work for Senior Citizens.
Dr. Vyasamoorthy currently serves as President, Society for Serving Seniors, Secunderabad; President,
Association of Senior Citizens, Hyderabad; Joint Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Senior Citizens
Confederation; Joint Secretary. All India Senior Citizens Confederation; and Vice President, Senior
Citizens Forum, Secunderabad. Dr. Vyasamoorthy has in the past served as Joint Secretary,
Confederation of Cantonment Resident Welfare Associations in Secunderabad (CCRWAS) and as Vice
President, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Senior Citizens Organizations. He is a member of the
Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), Hyderabad Deccan chapter, and the
University of the Third Age (U3A India). He also volunteers at Aasara, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal
Corporation’s outreach effort to senior citizens.

Dr. Vyasamoorthy retired around the same time as the internet was beginning to take off in the late
1990s, Google was in its infancy in a garage in California, and nobody had heard of “social media” since
it had yet to take birth. Dr. Vyasamoorthy used all three, as they emerged, in effective ways to empower
himself. He kept pace with technology, and through technology, with the forces changing the society
around him. As an elder care activist, he used his skills, training, knowledge and expertise in technology
to, in turn, disseminate to seniors, ideas, trends, and challenges that they were likely to encounter in a
changing world. For his role as a social catalyst in the area of elder empowerment and elder care, we are
pleased to award him the first KLN Award.

You can find more information about the KLN Award by clicking on the links to the right above.

Dr. Shankardass is not only a scholar and expert in the area of aging, elder abuse, and other issues
affecting the elderly, she has taken that knowledge and expertise outside the halls of academia and,
through the media, out into society at large. She has worked to table serious issues concerning elders,
even as those issues were still emerging out of the enormous economic and social changes occurring in
India. For her role as a social catalyst in the areas of aging and issues of concern to elders in India, we
are pleased to award Dr.Mala Kapur Shankardass the second KLN Award.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does KLN stand for and who is the award named after?

The award is named after the late K.L.N. Prasad (Kanuri Lakshmi Narayana Prasad) a businessman and
industrialist from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. He also represented Andhra Pradesh in the Rajya
Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) from 1970 till his death in 1987.

Who is eligible to receive the KLN Award?

The KLN Award is given to individuals who have made contributions in furthering our understanding
and/or raising awareness of issues concerning elders in society, from availability and adequacy of care,
to prevalence and prevention of neglect or abuse. They may be academics, lawyers, social workers,
journalists, bloggers, or everyday citizens who have made notable contributions to advancing the
spectrum of concerns affecting elders.

How often is the KLN Award given? Is there a cash award that goes with it?

The KLN Award is proposed to be given up to four times a year. The recipient gets a certificate and a
cash award of Rs. 200,000.

How do I apply for the KLN Award? I have done a lot of work on elder care issues, can I send you a
resume of my work to be considered for a future award?

Please do not send your resume, the KLN Award is not available by application and is not in the nature
of a grant. The award is designed to recognize social catalysts who have done work in the area of elder
care and have been referenced by their peers and/or in the media.
Can I recommend someone I know who is doing good work in issues affecting elders?

If you know of someone whose work deserves to be recognized, please get their permission and
highlight, promote and showcase their contributions in social media.

Who selects the winners and what are the criteria for selection?

The identity of participants in the selection process is confidential.

Awardees are selected on the basis of their work and contribution to raising awareness or furthering our
understanding of elder issues.

Award calendar

Following is the calendar for the KLN Award:

June 5, 2014 First awardee announced, presented June 15, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

July 16, 2014

Jan 1, 2015
Acknowledgments

Thanks and gratitude are due to Mrs. K. Prabhavati for her lifelong support and encouragement, and her
generosity of spirit.

Thanks are also due to the following for their help, guidance, and support:

Prof. Margaret Abraham, New York

Dr. Taisha Abraham, New Delhi

Srishant Challa, Hyderabad

Arvind Nigam, Sr. Advocate, New Delhi

Vinod and Anju Poddar, Hyderabad

Richard Spolzino, Esq., New York

Dr. Rachel Waxman, New York

Yeluri Ratnakar, Advocate, Hyderabad