It is difficult to paint India’s Senior Living scenario in one colour, all one can assume and hope for is, that the overall dynamics are improving and welfare schemes are slowly having a positive impact.

Central government has various schemes for the benefit of the elderly population however its implementation on ground level can be debatable. Each state is supposed to follow the central government guidelines on elderly care but then end of the day it is the effective governance of the state governments which defines the outcome.

According to the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011-2036, there were nearly 138 million (13.8 crore) elderly persons in India in 2021 and is projected to be 193.8 million (19.38 crore) in 2031.

During 2011 to 2021, the general population has increased by 12.4% while the elderly population has risen by 35.8%. It is projected that while the general population in the country will rise by 8.4% during 2021 to 2031, the population of elderly in India will grow by 40.5%.

As regards to rural and urban areas, as per 2011 census, 71% of elderly population resides in rural areas while 29% is in urban areas.

The life expectancy at birth during 2014-18 was 70.7 for females as against 68.2 years for males. At the age of 60 years, average remaining length of life was found to be about 18.2 years and that at age 70 was 11.6 years.

The larger point of debate is, do we require Right to Information or the Judiciary to intervene to know about the status on Senior Citizen Homes (SCHs) in the country? Is it that difficult to compile a central database of 2 thousand odd SCHs?

Another point of debate is, if the Government and the media keeps writing the word “Old Age Homes”, then how is the nation supposed to overcome the taboo associated with it? Why can’t we simply write Senior Citizen Homes or Elderly Care Homes?

The population boom of senior citizens will become a big challenge in the next decade or two. If the statistics are to be believed then India will have a humongous task to cater to the residential, medical, social, financial and wellness needs of the elderly.

In my opinion, if we do not act in a time bound manner to pull up the socks and take corrective actions then the senior citizens of our country could face a multitude of problems like poverty, homelessness, isolation, neglect, depression etc.

Eventually it is the people’s power which should define the future of the country.

** The articles in the slide have been randomly selected and are not biased towards any state government.

Pankaj Mehrotra