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Elderly Population in India

Context: The share of the elderly (persons aged 60 years and above) in India’s population, close to 9% in 2011, is growing fast and may reach 18% by 2036 according to the National Commission on Population. If India is to ensure a decent quality of life for the elderly in the near future, planning and providing for it must begin as early as possible.

Issues Faced by elderly population

• Mental health
  • A 2021 survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has revealed that 30 percent of the 103 million people above the age of 60 in India are suffering from some form or degree of depression.
  • The proportion with depression symptoms is much higher for women than men, and rises sharply with age. In most cases, depression remains undiagnosed and untreated.

• Poverty
  • According to the study conducted by Age Well Foundation, 65 percent of old people are poor with no source of known income.

• Physical and mental Abuse
  • As the system of Joint-Family is losing relevance, elderly in the family are considered as a liability.
  • Older women are more prone to suffer abuse due to factors like gender discrimination, longer lifespan than older men, longer span of widowhood and no source of income as traditionally most of them are housewives.

• Prone to Diseases
  • Lack of accessibility to health care services, issues with traveling, high out of the pocket expenditure on health measures, and ailing healthcare services from the Government makes them vulnerable to deteriorating health at a time when they need such services the most.

• Loneliness and Isolation
  • Rising frustration and the workload among the young does not allow them to be with their parents, lack of a partner in old age and city life isolation – all of it accumulates and leads to a tragic deterioration of the quality of life.

Government Schemes related to elderly

• Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana is emerging as a savings instrument with a fixed return of 8% per annum for the government bond.
• Vyoshri Yojana provides instrument-based assistance for ailing old people in the form of hearing devices, spectacles and others.
• The National Pension Scheme for older persons and Annapurna Scheme provides for both monetary assistance as well as subsidised food supply through the Public Distribution System.
• Maintenance Act 2007– An Act to provide for more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens guaranteed and recognized under the Constitution.
• National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE)– Main objective of the programme is to provide preventive, curative and rehabilitative services to the elderly persons at various level of health care delivery system of the country.

The older adults are our blessing and not a burden. Rather than letting them go through physical and mental trauma, they should be taken care of separately. They should be integrated into the lives of communities when they can themselves contribute to improving the social living conditions of society. Vietnam’s Model of Community Network on Elders needs to be promoted for this

Practice Question

What are the issues faced by elderly people in india? Also mention the steps taken by the government for their protection?