The vulnerabilities of India’s elderly
- In Indian conditions, in particular, the four vulnerabilities of later ages in life course are in terms of restrictions in activities of daily living, multi-morbidity, poverty and absence of any income.
- The Longitudinal Ageing Survey of India (LASI, 2017-18) reports that about 20% of the elderly population experience each of these vulnerabilities.
Related Data
- The projected magnitude of the elderly population is estimated at 319 million by mid-century, growing by around 3% a year.
- This group will be feminine with a sex ratio of 1,065 females per thousand males; further, 54% of elderly women will be widows.
- While 6% of the elderly men live alone against 9% of their female counterparts, 70% of them are to be found in rural areas.
- The most disturbing feature relates to the health status that is reported to be poor by a quarter of the elderly as against about 20% among the population aged 45 and above.
- While 75% of the elderly population are victims of one or more chronic diseases, 40% of those aged 45 and above have one or the other disability.
- With the advent of the global burden of disease, it is apparent that the two threatening forces are diabetes and cancer which appear to be frequent among India’s elderly.
- Also, the emerging concern relates to mental health with 20% of those aged above 45 self-reporting some ailment, primarily associated with depression; this is reasonably higher compared with the self-reported extent among the elderly.
- Hardly 12% are aware of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and 28% are aware of various concessions offered to the elderly.
- While 5% of them report abuse, they are quite frequent, particularly for women in rural areas where they remain the most neglected.
Suggestive Measures
- The remedy requires a multi-pronged approach involving the principles of inclusion and adoption of social security measures.
- Viewing these vulnerabilities as a life course phenomenon, promotion of life preparatory measures has to be put in place; this need not be limited to financial or economic independence per se but also means to ensure healthy active and productive years.
- The rising count of the elderly need not be seen in isolation as the population transition is occurring along with a familial transition.
- The familial transition needs to be read in consideration of the household compositions and the accommodation pattern of the elderly within them.
- While there are households without elderly and households with multiple elderly, there are frequent instances of elderly living with elderly within the household.
- Not only is this living arrangement becoming more and more frequent but there are other features of dependence, care provisioning as well as social security and financial protection assuming prominence in households with elderly compared with those without them.
- Contrasting today’s elderly with tomorrow’s, there is every possibility of characteristic advantage in terms of education, life preparation and economic dependence.
- However, adversities in health and quality of living owing to rising longevity and emergence of long-term chronic ailments.
- In this context, the slogan of healthy aging need not focus on the elderly population but the prospective elderly to a large extent.
- Limitations as regards activities of daily living (ADL) do show a worsening trend over age even among the elderly population but one wonders as to whether that pattern will be moderated down among the future elderly and be postponed to much later ages of life.