Aging in India- The Role of State in Health care

Abstract

The world is amidst of an epochal demographic shift that will reshape societies, economies, and markets throughout the next century. The world population, as per United Nations forecasts, will either stabilize/ balance or peak around 2050, after growing for centuries at an ever-accelerating rate. The fundamental reason is the decline occurring in birth rates as nations advance economically.  As birth rates drop and better health care services delay life traverses ( prolongs life span), the world’s population is aging rapidly. However the demographic dynamics in the developing world including India are radically different. Birth rates are still high, and populations are both growing and getting younger. Throughout the following couple of decades, a considerable lot of these nations including India are prone to experience what David Bloom, chair of the department of global health and population at Harvard's School of Public Health, has called a "demographic profit" a rising Proportion of youngsters entering the workforce, driving efficiency and economic development. But our aging population is anticipated to increase fourfold in next decade and this is a growing concern for India. The share of India’s population ages 60 and older is anticipated to move from 8 percent in 2010 to 19 percent in 2050, as indicated by the United Nations Population Division (UN 2011. By mid-century, India’s 60 and older population is expected to encompass 323 million individuals, a number more noteworthy than the aggregate U.S. populace in 2012. This profound shift in the share of older Indians— occurring with regards to changing family connections and severely limited old-age income support— brings with it an assortment of social, economic, and medicinal services approach challenges.

This paper proposes to contemplate  the probable impact of the aging population in India, the challenges to be met and the opportunities to be exploited by investigating demographic, social and economic trends and aspects of aging in India, and advocate the necessity  of policy initiatives for the care of older persons in India in terms of their wellbeing needs and budgetary security as it would be obligation of the state to provide, address the need of  general population  in the nation   irrespective of  age, standing, caste, sexual orientation and so forth.