Title: Aging in India: myth or reality?

Authors: Bipul Malakar; Shrabanti Maity

Addresses: Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, 188, Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick Rd., Jadavpur, Kolkata-700032, West Bengal, India ' Department of Economics, Assam University (A Central University), Silchar-788011, Assam, India

Abstract: The phenomenon of population ageing is becoming a major concern for policy makers all over the world, for both developed and developing countries, during last two decades. Ageing of population is affected due to downward trends in fertility and mortality. In India, size of elderly population is fast growing. In 2001, it constituted 7.4% of the total population. According to experts, it will become 12.6% by 2025. So, ageing problem is at its beginning in India. For a developing country like India this may pose mounting pressure on various socio-economic fronts like pension outlays, healthcare expenditures, etc. there is an emerging need to pay greater attention to ageing related issues. In this paper, the authors discussed about the socio-economic effects of ageing problems in India. For this purpose, the authors have used census data for analysis. Finally, on the basis of their discussion the authors have suggested some policy prescriptions.

Keywords: population ageing; demographic transition; crude birth rate; crude death rate; life expectancy; decadal growth rate; elderly workers; non-working elderly; retirement age; welfare programmes; India; healthcare spending; retirement pensions; developing countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2014.063563

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.499 - 514

Published online: 24 Jul 2014 *

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