ageing in india

India is in a phase of demographic transition. As per the 1991 census, the population of the elderly in India was 57 million as compared with 20 million in 1951. There has been a sharp increase in the number of elderly persons between 1991 and 2001 and it has been projected that by the year 2050, the number of elderly people would rise to about 324 million (Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2008). Projected increases in both the absolute and relative size of the elderly population in many third world countries is a subject of growing concern for public policy (Kinsella and Velkoff 2001; World Bank 2001; United Nations 2002; Bordia and Bhardwaj 2003; Liebig and Irudaya Rajan 2003). The combination of high fertility and declining mortality during the twentieth century has resulted in large and rapid increases in elderly populations as successively larger cohorts step into old age. Further, the sharp decline in fertility experienced in recent times is bound to lead to an increasing proportion of the elderly in the future. Since these demographic changes have been accompanied by rapid and profound socio-economic changes, cohorts might differ in their experience as they join the ranks of the elderly (Population Health and Ageing in India, 2007). Over the past decades, India's health program and policies have been focusing on issues like population stabilization, maternal and child health, and disease control. However, current statistics for the elderly in India gives a prelude to a new set of medical, social, and economic problems that could arise if a timely initiative in this direction is not taken by the program managers and policy makers. There is a need to highlight the medical and socio-economic problems that are being faced by the elderly people in India, and strategies for bringing about an improvement in their quality of life also need to be explored (Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2008). According to present indications, most of this growth will take
place in developing countries and over half of it will be in Asia, with the two majorpopulation giants of Asia, namely India (Irudaya Rajan, Mishra and Sarma