Britain must try and adopt an attitude like the one prevalent in the Indian subcontinent towards caring for the elderly, according to the country's Health Minister Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt was speaking in reference to figures that revealed that up to a million elderly people in the UK were being consigned to a life of loneliness and ill health because of society's failure to take responsibility for older relatives.
"In those (South Asian) countries, when living alone is no longer possible, residential care is a last rather than a first option," he said in a provocative speech at the National Children's and Adults Services conference in North Yorkshire today.
"And the social contract is stronger because as children see how their own grandparents are looked after, they develop higher expectations of how they too will be treated when they get old."
If Britain is to tackle the challenge of an ageing society, it must learn from South Asian countries and restore and reinvigorate the social contract between generations, Hunt said.
"And uncomfortable though it is to say it, it will only start with changes in the way we personally treat our own parents and grandparents," he added.
Hunt highlighted research showing there are now 800,000 people in England who are chronically lonely, even though "each and every lonely person has someone who could visit them and offer companionship".
"There is a problem of loneliness that in our busy lives we have utterly failed to confront as a society. Apart from the sheer cost of human unhappiness, loneliness is as bad for one's health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It is worse for you than obesity because it increases the risk of heart disease, blood clots and dementia," he said.
Hunt had recently announced plans to set up a rigorous inspection regime aimed at rooting out abuse and poor quality care in residential homes.
The Care Quality Commission is to take on 600 volunteers with first-hand experience of the care system to help carry out checks.
The commission is considering using hidden cameras and "mystery shoppers" to monitor quality standards. Failing care homes will be fined or closed down.
