About 62 per cent of our senior citizens don’t get palliative care and 68 per cent of the aged, who are being taken care of by their kin, have to look after the children of their families in turn
The number of elderly people in the country is increasing exponentially. In 2001, one out of seven of the aged people in the world was projected to be from India. This number of 7.66 crore (5.6 per cent) of the elderly population in that year increased to 10.38 crore (8.6 per cent of the population) in 2011.
In just eight years, India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country. Estimates from the United Kingdom-based International Longevity Centre, too, show that the population of the aged in India is set to increase by over 55 per cent by 2050. Those above 80 years of age will go up by 326 per cent in the same year.
The increase in the number of senior citizens will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, with Asia as the region with the largest number of elderly. Even now, our senior population is more than three times that of America.
The Elderly in India 2016 report by the Ministry of Statistics states that 71 per cent of the aged population resides in the villages. A UN report based on an Agewell Foundation Study in 2018, with more than 10,000 respondents across northern, southern, western, eastern and central India showed that 62 per cent of the elderly did not get palliative care.
As much as 68 per cent of the elderly, who are being taken care of by their kin, have to look after the children of their families in turn. They have to perform tasks such as baby-sitting in return of proper care and support. As the majority lives in rural areas, healthcare equipment such as wheelchairs, relief material such as adult diapers and care-giving services are a distant thought.
In a remarkable coincidence, the International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) and the day India ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, fall on October 1. However, the similarity ends here, as the population of the elderly is growing and efforts to implement the Convention are static if not on a downward trajectory.
Sadly, Parkinson’s disease is a common disability in old age. Though our new law recognises chronic neurological conditions as a specified disability, strangely neither those affected by Parkinson’s disease nor Multiple Sclerosis are provided four per cent job reservations. The Rural Development Ministry implements the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme but only among senior citizens living below the poverty line. The meagre pension of Rs 200 per month is for people above 60 years of age and Rs 500 per month for elderly above 80 years of age. The Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana is supposed to provide aids and assistance to senior citizens from families that belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. The number of beneficiaries in this scheme reduced drastically from 1,665 last year to 261 this year in Bihar. Surprisingly, the number of recipients in 2018-19 from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Goa and Puducherry has been zero in comparison to last year. Ironically the theme of the IDOP this year was “The journey to age equality.”
Interestingly, an all-girl team, Tech Witches, from NOIDA developed Maitria mobile app that connects children at orphanages with senior citizens in old-age homes. This innovation fetched them a bronze medal at Technovation Challenge in the US. It’s a wonderful way to bridge the chasm between people with the misfortune of loneliness and depression and those lacking the nurturing affection and blessings of the elderly.
Another possible way by which the youth can embrace the elderly is what I propose as the Aashirwad scheme that is based on Switzerland’s concept of “Time Bank.”
Under that scheme, any young person in good health, who has time on his/her hands, can provide care and support for elderly people in need in their area. Every hour worked is recorded as a “deposit” on a special personal account, which can later be used to pay for the care workers’ time when the volunteer in turn needs assistance.
Aashirwad scheme, the Indian version of the Swiss initiative, can also be implemented in the country on a pilot basis and then spread across the nation, depending on its success.
Sadly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not mention discrimination on the basis of age. Still, the younger generation and everybody else must embrace the elderly by protecting their rights and by respecting them for their contributions.
(The writer teaches at University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi and is a disability rights activist. The views expressed are personal.)
