OLD-AGE SECURITY AND INHERITANCE IN NEPAL - MOTIVES VERSUS MEANS

This paper documents expectations of old age support in rural Nepal. C urrent living arrangements of the elderly have been analysed with a fo cus on the ownership of land holdings. It is argued that the intergene rational transfer of property through inheritance from the older to th e younger generation, especially among sons, together with the Nepali normative prescription that sons care for their aged parents, provides a mechanism for old age support. However, land is becoming a scarce r esource, cultural traditions are breaking down through modernisation a nd the living conditions of the elderly are likely to deteriorate as t his process continues.