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NEWS ALERTS | Rising elderly population needs a broad-based support system
Rising elderly population needs a broad-based support system

Rising elderly population needs a broad-based support system

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published Published on Apr 25, 2016   modified Modified on May 8, 2016

Although the focus of erstwhile UPA and the present NDA government has been to achieve higher economic growth by reaping the 'demographic dividend', a recent report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) informs us that a substantial chunk of the population underwent ageing during the last 60 years.

The report entitled Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016 from CSO (that comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) shows that as a whole the share of the elderly in the population has gone up from 5.5 percent in 1951 to around 8.6 percent in 2011 (see Chart 1).



The MoSPI report, which is broadly based on population Census (various years), states that the old-age dependency ratio has climbed up from 10.9 percent in 1961 to 14.2 percent in 2011. Old-age dependency ratio is defined as the ratio of the number of persons in the age-group 60 years or more to the number of persons in age-group 15 to 59 years.

It needs to be mentioned here that the overall dependency ratio of India, which is the sum total of young-age dependency ratio and old-age dependency ratio, has fallen from 79.4 percent in 1991 to 65.2 percent in 2011. Although old-age dependency ratio has increased from 12.2 percent in 1991 to 14.2 percent in 2011, the decline in young-age dependency ratio has been much sharper i.e. from 67.2 percent in 1991 to 51.0 percent in 2011.

The old-age dependency ratio rises due to improvement in life expectancy at birth.

It been explained in the recent MoSPI report that there is a substantial reduction in mortality in the society thanks to improved economic well-being, better health care system and good medicines, among other things. The fall in mortality has cut down fertility too. All these factors together have resulted in increased share of elderly persons in the total population.

As could be seen from the Chart 2, the decadal growth of elderly population surpassed growth of general population (in each of the 6 decades) since 1951.



One needs to highlight that the rising share of elderly population puts a strain on health care and social care systems of the nation. With a growing population of the elderly, the country needs more health and medical services, facilities and resources including hospitals, doctors, nurses & caregivers. Due to the rising trend of nuclear families in our society, besides the trend of fewer children in the family as compared to before, giving care and protection to the elderly has become a difficult task. It, therefore, becomes imperative on the part of Government to provide broad-based socio-economic support in the form of social security to old-age persons.  

The World Social Protection Report 2014/15 by International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that while close to three-quarter of the old-age population of China came under the old-age pension coverage in 2011, only a quarter of old Indian citizens were covered under the same. The proportion of active contributors to a pension scheme in the working-age population 15–64 years has been 7.4 percent for India and 46.4 percent for China.

A World Bank report entitled The State of Social Safety Nets 2015 states that the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) annually covers 21 million Indian population, the second largest in terms of scale by any Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) programme running in the world.  

Pension Parishad (http://pensionparishad.org/), which is a forum for civil society organizations (CSOs) so as to demand for universal old age pension, has been making the following demands:

• A universal and non-contributory old age pension system to be established immediately by the government with a minimum amount of monthly pension not less than 50 percent of minimum wage or Rs. 2,000/- per month, whichever is higher.

• The pension to be an individual entitlement for all eligible citizens of India.

• The monthly pension amount to be indexed to inflation bi-annually and revised every two to three years in the same manner as is done for salaries/ pensions of government servants.

• Any individual 55 years or older to be eligible for the old age pension.

• For women, eligibility age for pensions to be 50 years.

• For highly vulnerable groups (such as the Primitive Tribal Groups, Transgender, Sex Workers, PWDs), the eligibility age to be 45 years or fixed according to their particular circumstances.

• No one to be forced to compulsorily retire from work on attaining the age of eligibility for universal old age pension.

• A single window system for old age pensions.

• APL/ BPL criteria should not be used for exclusion.

• The payment of pension not to be used to deny any other social security / welfare benefit such as benefit under the Public Distribution System.

The key findings of the report entitled Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016 are as follows:

• Around 73.3 million elderly persons i.e. 71 percent of elderly population reside in rural areas while 30.6 million or 29 percent of elderly population live in urban areas.

• Between 2001 and 2011, the growth in elderly population was 35.5 percent while the same was 25.2 percent in the previous decade. The general population grew by 17.7 percent during 2001-2011 vis-à-vis 21.5 percent in the previous decade.

• In rural areas, the proportion of elderly persons has increased from 5.8 percent to 8.8 percent, while in urban areas it has increased from 4.7 percent to 8.1 percent between 1961 and 2011.

• It is said that more workforce implies greater potential for economic development of the country. The population Census data says that the proportion of children in the population (age 0-14 years) increased till 1971 but afterwards it gradually decreased. In 2011, the proportion of children in the population was 30.8 percent. The proportion of elderly is ever increasing since 1951 and has reached 8.6 percent in 2011. The working age population is increasing since 1971 and its share has reached 60.3 percent in 2011.

• Kerala has the maximum proportion of elderly people in its population (12.6 percent), followed by Goa (11.2 percent) and Tamil Nadu (10.4 percent) as per Census 2011. This may be due to the lifestyle and better medical facilities in respective states.

• Nearly 68.7 percent of the households i.e. 67.5 percent in rural areas and 71.2 percent in the urban areas do not have any aged person of age 60 years or more. Around 21.6 percent households have one aged person and 9.3 percent households have 2 aged members. In rural areas, the corresponding proportions are 22.1 percent and 9.9 percent, and in urban areas 20.5 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively. Only 0.4 percent households have 3 or more aged members.

• As per the Census 2011, the sex ratio for general and elderly population are 943 and 1033 respectively, which are quite close to the levels that prevailed in 1951 i.e. 946 and 1028, respectively.

• The Census 2011 says that the percentage of currently married elderly women was markedly lower than the percentage of currently married elderly men. After the age of 70 years, more than 60 percent of women become widows.

• Life expectancy in India has increased in rural as well as urban areas. At birth, in rural areas, it has increased from 48 years in 1970-75 to 66.3 years in 2009-13, while in urban areas it has increased from 58.9 years to 71.2 years. At the age of 60 years, during the same period, it has increased from 13.5 to 17.5 years in rural areas, and from 15.7 to 19.1 years in urban areas.

• Kerala has got the highest life expectancy at birth, followed by Maharashtra and Punjab. The life expectancy at birth in Kerala is 71.8 years and 77.8 years for males and females respectively as per the Sample Registration System (SRS) report 2009-13.

• At the age of 60 years, for males, Punjab has the highest life expectancy (19.3 years) and lowest value is observed in Assam and Madhya Pradesh (both 15.4 years), followed by Himachal Pradesh (18.3 years) and Kerala (18.0 years). For females, however, the highest life expectancy at age of 60 years is, 21.6 years (Kerala) and lowest is 17.5 years (Bihar).

• The old-age dependency ratio shows an increasing trend and the ratio has risen from 10.9 percent in 1961 to 14.2 percent in 2011. The gap between female and male old-age dependency ratio has risen and the two assumed the values 14.9 percent and 13.6 percent respectively in 2011. Between rural and urban ratios there has been considerable difference in all the periods and this may be due to relatively higher concentration of working age population in urban areas. As per the 2011 Census, the old-age dependency ratios are 15.1 percent and 12.4 percent for rural and urban areas, respectively.

• Among the major states the overall old-age dependency ratio varied from 10.4 percent in Delhi to 19.6 percent in Kerala. The ratio has increased over time for all these states but the rate of increase was relatively higher in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as compared to 2001.

• The difference between rural and urban old-age dependency ratio was significantly high in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh etc., whereas in the case of Assam, Delhi and Kerala the ratio remained almost the same in both rural and urban areas.

• As per the Census 2011, 66.4 percent of elderly men and 28.4 percent of elderly women in rural areas participate in economic activity in the capacity of main or marginal worker. In urban areas, however, it was only 46.1 percent among elderly men and about 11.3 percent of elderly women, who were economically active. The proportions increased for women between 2001 and 2011 in both rural and urban areas.

• The literacy rate among elderly females (28 percent) is less than half of the literacy rate prevailing among elderly males (59 percent).

• Around 30.3 percent of elderly persons in urban areas were having educational qualification matric/secondary and above but the proportion is comparatively much less (7.1 percent) in rural areas.

• The overall literacy rate among persons aged 60 years & above was least in Arunachal Pradesh (19.4 percent). The maximum literacy rate was 84.1 percent in Mizoram, followed by 79.2 percent in Kerala and 74.6 percent in Chandigarh.

• The urban literacy rates are significantly higher than rural literacy rates in all states/ UTs but for Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Jharkhand and Rajasthan the differences were found to be considerably high.

• The population Census 2011 data reveal that locomotor (Orthopaedic) disability and visual disability are the most prevalent disabilities among elderly persons. Almost half of the elderly disabled population was reported to be suffering from these two types of disabilities.

• The percentage of elderly disabled persons is slightly higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas as per the Census 2011 data. Around 5.59 percent of elderly population was reported as disabled in rural areas, whereas in urban areas 4.18 percent of elderly population was disabled.

References

Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, please click here to access

The State of Social Safety Nets 2015, World Bank, published in July 2015, please click here to access

World Social Protection Report 2014/15: Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice, International Labour Organization, published in 2014, please click here to access

Elder Abuse in India (2014) by HelpAge India, please click here to access  

World Social Security Report 2010/11: Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond, ILO, please click here to access

Report on Status of Elderly in Select States of India (2011), UNFPA India, please click here to access

Situation analysis of the elderly in India, June 2011, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, please click here to access

Power point presentation of Dr. C Chandramouli on age-data highlights of Census 2011, prepared on August 2013, Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, please click here to access

Social Safety nets require more public funding, Inclusive Media for Change newsalert, please click here to access

Alarming rise in elder abuse in urban India, Inclusive Media for Change newsalert, please click here to access

Give universal pension for a dignified life, Inclusive Media for Change newsalert, please click here to access

More Evidence on the need for old age pension, Inclusive Media for Change newsalert, please click here to access 
 
Record 35 per cent jump pushes 60-plus population to an all-time high -Zeeshan Shaikh, The Indian Express, 22 April, 2016, please click here to access
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi


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