The workshop by Prof. Christiane Brosius and Roberta Mandoki took place in New Delhi at 19^th/20^th/25^th September, 2018 and was hosted by the DAAD-funded cooperation project "New Directions in 'Active Aging' and 'Age-friendly Culture' in India and Germany" (Heidelberg University and Jawaharlal Nehru University). It brought together PhD Students from JNU (School of Social Sciences), MA students from HU (Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Institute of Gerontology and South Asia Institute) and Indian-German project members examining care in the context of ageing in South Asia.

The workshop was opened at Jawaharlal Nehru University by Prof. Christiane Brosius and Prof. Surinder Jodhka (Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU) and included discussions and presentations on different aspects of caring relations and ageing such as eg. elderly care with information technologies in transnational Indian families, ageing in urban spaces and in particular in urban India (Delhi). The interactive documentary Elderscapes – Ageing in Urban South Asia was presented by co-author Roberta Mandoki and she focused hereby on ageing and care in Kathmandu, Nepal. Iris Boettcher (MA student HCTS) talked on "Population Ageing and care worker migration – a transcultural perspective on the global care workers shortage."

The excursion to a Senior Care Centre (Samvedna) scheduled for the next day was introduced by Archana Sharma, founder and managing director of Samvedna, speaking on Samvedna’s history, it’s challenges and the changing social relationships in the context of nuclear families in urban India. This was followed by the visit to Samvedna, where students received the possibility to engage in conversations with the elderly, family caregivers and Samvedna’s staff members. It was a very interesting and enriching experience not only for the students but probably for all participants to discuss different aspects of ageing from various cultural backgrounds.

At the last workshop day students presented and discussed their findings combining and applying the reviewed theory and key readings with fieldwork data and experiences from the excursion. The event concluded with a visit of the Filmfestival for Generations at the India International Centre, New Delhi  - also part of the DAAD-project ‘Active Ageing‘ -  by attending the screening "Forget me not" (a documentary on dementia in Germay) and the following discussion, which was moderated by Prof. Christiane Brosius and Archana Sharma.      

Here you’ll find more information on the workshop (program/PDF) and the Filmfestival for Generations, New Delhi.