BEHIND closed doors and locked gates, there is a quiet tragedy spreading in our society. The number of old-age homes is increasing, especially in Karachi, not because people have nowhere else to go, but because their own children have stopped making space for them in their lives and in their hearts.

What kind of world are we building, where a mother who once fed her child with trembling hands is left eating alone among strangers in her old age … where a father who walked miles to earn a living for his family now walks alone in the corridors of a shelter home waiting for visitors who never come?

The most gut-wrenching part is that many of these elderly individuals are not just abandoned; they are betrayed. After spending their entire lives building a home, raising their children with love, care and sacrifice, they hand over the very roofs over their heads to the children they trusted the most. And soon thereafter, they are told — sometimes cruelly, sometimes quietly — that they no longer belong there. They are shown the door, and forgotten.

Have we grown so cold that the hands that once held ours are now too much of a burden? Have we grown so blind that we no longer see the tears in their eyes when they leave the home they built, not for themselves, but for us?

This is not just a moral failure — it is a collective heartbreak. We cannot call ourselves civilised, educated or humane while we discard the very people who gave us life.

We owe them more than just shelter; we owe them love, dignity and protection. We must speak out, change laws if we have to, and, above all, change minds. If we allow this tragic trend to continue, the same will happen to us when we grow old. It is all just a matter of time really.

Syeda Fatima Surraiya Gardezi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2026