The Ageing of India

Four years hence, 71 million grey-haired, 60-plus veterans will walk this young country of ours. By 2016, this elderly population, growing at a rate of 3.55 per cent, will touch 113 million.

In the 100 year span from 1961 to 2061, while the total population in India climbed just five times, the number of elders soared 13 times over -- to reach an amazing 340 million.

And elderly males beat their male counterparts hollow, in this lively game of defying death!

Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India M Vijayanunni says the elderly population has doubled in the 20 years between 1961 and 1991 -- from 25.6 to 56.7 million.

What is more, the trend is still continuing.

"If we have been talking of a fourth India being added to the post-Independence population after crossing the one-billion mark at the turn of the century, 50 years later, we would be talking about a fifth India being added -- and this would be a completely grey India!" Vijayanunni says.

And as the grey population increases, with it would come the health question: How to keep them relatively fit and disease free? That is what is taxing the grey cells of many welfare officials these days.

"The best way to cope with this elderly boom," says Vijayanunni, "is to help all above 40 to adopt a healthy lifestyle, involving right eating, regular exercise and medical check-ups."

Giving break-ups about the statistics, the census commissioner said male preponderance is limited to lower ages and rural areas. ''This is because a large number of elderly women live in urban places because they have greater access to specialised health services there," Vijayanunni says.

The female sex ratio among the elderly in 1991 was 932, slightly higher than the general ratio of 929.

The percentage of females rises further with age and may exceed 70 per cent in the 80-plus group, as in countries like Germany.

More husbands die among the elderly compared to wives -- in 1991, while 54 per cent of the married elderly women were widowed, only 15 per cent of such men lost wives.

Giving further details, the census commissioner said the position of the aged women was much worse than of men in regard to literacy and education. As many as 87 per cent was illiterate as against 59 per cent of men.The urban aged were better educated than their rural counterparts (49 per cent against only 21 per cent of rurals.)

"It is amazing only three per cent of the rural women had even primary education. Those with higher levels of education works out to be a mere 0.3 per cent!'' Vijayanunni reveals.

However, he said not much information was available on the income and economic characteristics of the aged population. ''But agriculture is a main occupation for the elderly. According to the 1991 census, 70 per cent of the Indian males and 84 per cent of females are employed in the agricultural sector," he adds.

Vijayanunni said the old age dependency ratio in 1991 was 12.26 with little difference between males and females. This ratio speaks of the proportion of population aged 60 and above to that of the working age population (between 15 to 59).

The old age dependency ratio in developing countries like India at present is much lower than in developed countries. This is expected to stay stable, even as a rapid increase is predicted in some developed countries.