Now Reading: By 2050, 1 in 5 Indians will be over 60, study warns
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By 2050, 1 in 5 Indians will be over 60, study warns
One in five Indians will be over 60 by 2050, with nearly 70 per cent of older adults living in rural areas, according to a white paper by Transform Rural India. The…
The Story in Brief
One in five Indians will be over 60 by 2050, with nearly 70 per cent of older adults living in rural areas, according to a white paper by Transform Rural India. The study warns India is growing old before growing rich, unlike developed nations that got wealthy first. The number of working-age adults per older person is set to fall from 8.4 in 2001 to 5.2 by 2026.
Women spend 305 minutes daily on unpaid care work versus 56 minutes for men, the Deccan Herald reports citing the paper. Nearly 94 per cent of elder care is still done within households, straining smaller families. The paper recommends a ‘neighbourhood of care’ model linking rural institutions, and says investing 2 per cent of GDP in care could generate 11 million jobs, mostly for rural women.
The Indian Opinion
The ‘old before rich’ line is dramatic, but the real story is rural India being left behind twice – first by development, now by an ageing crisis it didn’t plan for. The praise for connecting existing institutions is welcome, yet no one asks why those institutions weren't connected already. Women already do 305 minutes of unpaid care daily; adding more work without pay is not a policy. The test is whether the 2026 working-age ratio of 5.2 per older person actually leads to new spending, not just more white papers.
Source: deccanherald.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
