Young India must prepare for ageing population
We are constantly reminded that India is a ‘young’ country; Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh has mentioned that 65 per cent of Indians are below 35 years of age. We harp of our demographic dividend, yet forget our demographic burden. Employing hundreds of millions of young people is that demographic burden that lies as a weight on the shoulders of India’s politicians. Yet while we constantly talk about our young people and the opportunity that lies within India, we forget that a third of our population is aging. And while healthcare advances are giving India’s wealthiest access to lifespans comparable to those in the developed world, by reducing causes of premature death, overall life-expectancy in India is also improving. Given the sheer numbers of Indians this is going to be a challenge to Indian Governments in many different ways. The first will be the financial burden of enhanced pension payments with increased salaries and longer lifespans. Many European countries with extremely generous pension schemes find themselves going under, thanks to these pensions. In the United States, several companies that promised lifetime pensions managed to get out of their commitments, thanks to bankruptcy laws. The Narendra Modi Government has brought in One Rank, One Pension but should be wary of future pension commitments for state-employees. A way around enhanced pensions could be making older workers work longer, increasing the mandatory retirement age for full-pensions from 60 to 62, as some European countries have done. However, expecting older, experienced workers to work late into their lives is going to come up against the need to employ younger people. Yet, with increased lifespans it seems criminal to let talented assets go. This will be a tight balancing act for the Government and private companies.
But the biggest challenge for the Government when it comes to India’s senior citizens is not about pensions, the increased interest rates in fixed deposits or the sops on train tickets but the increased healthcare needs of an aging population. The dengue crisis in the national capital has proven a couple of things, the first is that the health infrastructure in this country, even in its most advanced and richest city is woefully inadequate. The second is that healthcare access is unfortunately for the most part determined by wealth rather than by need. The wealthy in India can afford world-class healthcare, the poor can not even afford basic medication.
There are several aspects wrong with medical education in India and private healthcare on the whole whose corrupt practices have been highlighted time and again, even in Bollywood movies. India’s burgeoning aged population will need access to better healthcare. This is a health crisis that we can see coming, and unlike dengue, this is a not crisis that will go away once the season is over. Yes India is a young country but we should not make it into no country for old men.