The Invisible Parents
-Bruhaspati Samal-
In the twilight of their lives, when strength wanes and dependence quietly grows, millions of old parents in India are discovering a cruel truth: blood relations do not always translate into care. Fathers who once cycled miles to send their children to school, mothers who sacrificed health and hunger to build secure futures for their families, today wait—often in silence—for a phone call, a visit, or basic financial support. In an India that boasts of economic growth and demographic dividend, the humiliation of abandoned old age has become one of the most painful contradictions of our time.
Against this grim social backdrop, the recent announcement by the Telangana government has struck a powerful chord. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has indicated that the state is considering legislation to deduct 10 per cent of the salary of government employees who neglect their elderly parents, transferring the amount directly to the parents’ bank accounts, but only in cases where parents formally seek redress. Coupled with assurances of verification safeguards and grievance mechanisms, the proposal reflects an unusually firm resolve to enforce family responsibility through employment policy. Symbolically and substantively, it signals that the dignity of old parents is no longer to be treated as a private moral issue alone, but as a matter of public concern.
Yet this bold move also exposes a deeper and older contradiction embedded in India’s wage and labour jurisprudence—one that has systematically rendered parents invisible in the economic imagination of the State.
The roots of this exclusion go back to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (now Wage Code 2019) which failed to provide precise statutory norms for quantifying the Minimum Wage. Trying to mitigate this gap, the 15th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) held in July 1957 laid down the foundational framework for need-based minimum wages in India prescribing five norms inclusive of defining a standard family of three consumption units (CUs) consisted of the male worker as one CU, the wife as 0.8 CU, and two children as 0.6 CU each. Notably absent from this formulation were the parents of the wage earner. This omission was carried forward for decades, even as Indian society aged and joint families fragmented.
Further, in 1992, though the Supreme Court of India sought to humanise wage fixation further with direction to include some additional components in minimum wages — children’s education, medical requirements, minimum recreation including festivals and ceremonies, and contingencies such as old age and marriage, the Court confined these contingencies to the wage earner’s immediate nuclear family, leaving parents outside the formal calculation of need. Ironically, this exclusion persists despite the fact that, at the time of entry into employment, a worker may not have a spouse or children, but almost certainly has parents. The Indian wage structure thus recognises hypothetical dependents while ignoring real, living ones.
Legally, the obligation to maintain parents is well established. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 mandates children and relatives to provide for food, clothing, residence and medical care. Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, secular in nature, also provides for maintenance of parents. The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 recognise dependent parents as family members for benefits such as Leave Travel Concession and medical treatment. Yet, when it comes to wage determination—the very foundation of economic capacity—parents are erased. This contradiction weakens even well-intentioned policies like the proposed Telangana salary deduction. Without correcting the basic wage formula, punitive deductions risk legal challenge and may be perceived as coercive rather than corrective. True enforceability lies not merely in punishment, but in structural reform.
A compelling solution lies in revisiting the consumption unit framework itself. If parents are legally, ethically and socially recognised dependents, they must be economically acknowledged. Replacing the outdated three-CU model with a five-CU framework—adding one CU each for father and mother—would align wages with lived realities. Alternatively, even the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s 2019 recommendation to enhance the family norm to 3.6 CUs would be a step forward. Significantly, this issue has already entered the national policy discourse. During discussions on the Terms of Reference of the 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) in February 2025, the Staff Side of the National Council (JCM) formally demanded inclusion of parents in the consumption unit formula. Accordingly, it has been decided by the Confederation of Central Govt. Employees and Workers to submit the Draft Memorandum to the 8th CPC to determine the Minimum Wage considering the family of the employee as 5 CU. As states traditionally follow Central Pay Commission recommendations, the decisions taken now will shape the economic dignity of millions of families for decades.
At this historic juncture, the Telangana government’s proposal should be seen not as an anomaly, but as a wake-up call. Inclusion of old parents in the minimum wage fixation formula will certainly have a legal and moral binding on the employees ignoring their parents and thus it will help the parent to be clearly visible in the eyes of the law. The Central Government, wage-fixing authorities, and constitutional institutions must act in unison. A suo motu intervention by the Supreme Court, directing revision of minimum wage norms to include parents, would not only harmonise labour law with social justice, but also stand as a landmark judgment in favour of senior citizens. This is not merely about numbers, percentages or pay scales. It is about restoring respect to wrinkled hands that once held the nation together. It is about ensuring that old age is not a punishment for having raised children. A society that forces its elders to beg for dignity has already lost its moral compass.
The time has come for governments to move beyond token welfare and address the structural roots of neglect. Revising wage formulas, strengthening enforcement of maintenance laws, and redefining “family” in economic policy are revolutionary acts of justice. Let Telangana’s initiative ignite a nationwide transformation—where parents are no longer invisible, where wages reflect responsibility, and where growing old in India once again means growing old with dignity.
(The author is a Service Union Representative and a columnist)
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