Demographic dividend was the buzzword of the last decade. India reaped the gains. Now, the time bomb is ticking, silently, of an ageing population, and India may soon be staring at the prospects of a
grey tsunami.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in its ‘World Population Prospects 2019’ report has projected that India by 2050 will have more people above 60 years of age than those under 14 years. That’s less than three decades away. The world in 2018 already had more people above 65 years of age than those under five years. The population trend is global.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the agenda for India@2047 when the country would celebrate 100 years of independence as part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ with a call for steps that will create global footprints. It’s pertinent that the projected 158.7 million senior citizens by 2025 are accorded centrestage with suitable policy tweaks and thrusts.
China is already hit hard by an ageing population and lack of preparedness in the face of demographic changes. The 52nd round of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) underlined that half of the senior citizens are fully dependent on others, another 20 percent partially dependent, and 71 percent in the rural areas fall in the marginalised category consisting of women, widows, and the poor.
Migration, driven largely for economic reasons, leaves an empty nest trail, making the senior citizens more vulnerable and insecure. Healthcare advancements and greater access to facilities for well-being ensure that people going past 60 years of age shouldn’t be looked upon with an eye of sympathy or mercy, but celebrated for their rich contributions while also ensuring that they remain engaged in meaningful and gainful activities.
The Centre and states should begin working on the policy templates to ride the grey tsunami and tame it for the national advantage. Parliament and the state legislators should hold in-depth discussions to help policy formulation in the right earnest while also taking stakeholders on board. The lawmakers, policy mandarins and think-tanks should accord priority to addressing the issue and hold discussions in state capitals with the involvement of industry leaders.
The policy interventions that India must embrace essentially should be five-pronged—productivity and engagement, wellbeing, equality, cohesion and security. To unleash the full economic potential of the senior citizens, their incomes, no strings attached, should be income tax and capital gains tax exempt. This will help India retrieve the vast chunk of the elderly population back into the productive workforce, gaining from their expertise and competencies. At the age of 68 years, Ashok Soota founded Happiest Minds, a multi-billion-dollar Bengaluru-headquartered IT company, and Tata behemoth outshone peers in the last two decades when Ratan Tata was already a senior citizen.
Holistic policy intervention would require a department for the welfare of senior citizens, with the mandate to work as a nodal agency, along with a National Council for Senior Citizens and National Commission for Senior Citizens. The digital prowess can help create a national database of senior citizens, mapping their competencies, which in turn could give India a rich resource of mentors, who can hand-hold and guide youth in diverse professional walks of life.
National Institute for Social Defence with chapters in all state capitals can be expanded, with larger budgetary allocations and greater student intake to fully utilise services of the senior citizens.
Judiciary and police can be roped in to fast-track cases for senior citizens and set up dedicated cells in each police station.
On the lines of Japan, India can begin working on the concept of ‘Time Bank’. Those who care for the senior citizens by visiting and spending time with them will have a matching quantum of time deposited in their personal social security system that could be cashed in on when they become old with youngsters caring for them.
Smart city and local bodies can revisit their charters to ensure that they will take monitorable measures for the employment, skill development, and family integration of senior citizens, besides creating facilities for senior citizens for mental health and overall wellbeing.
Experiences and competencies gained after years of hard work can remain idle only when the opportunity pie is small, but once it becomes large there could be space for each section of the society. That’s possible when PM Modi has set a target of a $5 trillion economy. It will be foolhardy to think that the life bridge when it crosses 60 years of age should lead into the times of rest and pilgrimage for the senior citizens, for they are goldmines of a productive economy and also social institutions.
That will be the true celebrations of India@2047.
Sumeet Bhasin
Twitter: @sumeetbhasin