They say old is gold, but it is certainly in the cold. A UN report recorded 149 million senior citizens living in India in 2022, a number predicted to more than double to 347 million by 2050. As the number multiplies, India faces a serious senior citizen problem which will explode as an economic and health catastrophe for the government.
If age is just a number, it is a wrong number. Last week, a WhatsApp chat about Jaya Bachchan’s parliament speech exposing the abominable plight of India’s ageing and aged population and the government’s indifference towards them struck a chord. In spite of the flood of memes and deepfakes, truth can’t be hidden. Social media went berserk when the father of Indian cricket star Ravindra Jadeja complained of being left to fend for himself, alleging machinations by his daughter in law Rivaba, a BJP MLA. Previously, industrialist Gautam Singhania was in the news for throwing out his father Vijaypat Singhania from his luxurious home after getting control of the business. Senior Singhania, 85, the founder of the Rs 8,300-crore Raymond empire, is now living in a small apartment in Mumbai on his personal savings.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows his mission of ‘Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas’ and ‘Sab ka vishwas’, the executive, corporate leaders and others are creating an environment of exclusion over inclusion. Older Indians are denied health insurance, bank loans and visas or a driving licence after they cross 70. Now they must also scrap their 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol cars. With no income except their pension, they are forced to depend on an inadequate and inefficient public transport system.
In the West, the elderly are perceived as non-productive human assets. With the growing influence of Western lifestyles leading to a breakdown of the united family system in India, senescent individuals who become unemployed after retirement are shown the door by their children from the very homes they built. After feeding families and giving their progeny a good education, some of them aren’t given a bed at home or are taken to a hospital if they fall sick. Over 150 million sexagenarians, septuagenarians and octogenarians are deprived of social and economic security because of the avaricious financial and legal ecosystem, which treats them as liabilities rather than assets with experience and wisdom. One out of every ten Indian is kept out of the various sarkari concessions and facilities such as pensions and old age benefits.
Strangely, none of the government bodies have made any attempt to keep the ageing and the aged within the ambit of India’s welfare and monetary framework. There are the odd pension schemes at the state level. One of the provisions is that an old woman or man is entitled to a monthly stipend of just Rs 1,000-1,500. Even to get that measly amount, old people have to make numerous trips to meet local babus, who torture them with contempt or ask for bribes. Hardly has any state evolved a direct transfer mechanism for pensions. There is hardly any post-retirement scheme for private sector employees or businesspeople who are unable to run their businesses after sixty. While India’s fast-growing private sector is reeling in profits, it has few pension schemes for workers who give them the best part of their lives for three decades.
Ironically, when it comes to ensuring the financial security of retired persons, the system discriminates in favour of state, government and public sector employees. Both politicians and governments have promised senior citizens a post-superannuation life of comfort and safety. All 4,200-odd MLAs and 790 MPs of India’s lawmaking monolith are ensured lifelong pension and benefits. All IAS, IPS and other service officials have devised a lucrative pension scheme that gives almost 40-50 percent of their salaries as pension. The average pension of a senior officer is ten times the average per capita income.
Even banks discriminate against senior citizens. While they offer the additional interest on fixed deposits, the elderly are denied loans for the most-talked-about buzzword: start-ups. The cash flow of sexagenarians and above is further eroded by paying income tax on the interest from their FDs—a bizarre cruelty since they have already paid tax on that income previously.
As corporate giants take over India’s healthcare system, medical help is becoming out-of-reach for the poor or middle-class septuagenarians. Private insurance companies don’t sell policies to people above 70 years of age, or charge exorbitant premiums. On the other hand, all government officials and politicians get lifelong medical facilities for free post-retirement.
According to unofficial estimates, over 90 percent of old and ill people die before they can reach the hospital. Elderly couples living alone often die alone, their rotting bodies discovered by a neighbour alerted by the stench. A few charity organisations have set up old age homes, which have now become another money-spinner for the corporate sector, which is launching luxurious old age homes for huge prices, once again leaving the middle and lower middle class sexagenarians to octogenarians to die in isolation. In the absence of any support from their callous progeny, elderly parents are soft targets for criminals.
Senior citizens are stuck in a permanent state of limbo, socially or physically immobile. The reason for such neglect could be that senior citizens aren’t a vote bank yet. Politicians are ignorant of the reality that one in five Indians above 60 live below the poverty line, with one in every two elders in Chhattisgarh facing poverty. By one estimate, one in every three Indians in 2050 will be a senior, and a large section of them may face poverty. Unless a solid blueprint with a time-bound action plan is evolved urgently, the resource-less, insecure and ailing elderly Indian will damage India’s reputation as a viksit and surakshit Bharat.
Just as the rich and famous cannot be allowed sole entitlement of national infrastructure and social security, India’s unprotected senior citizens cannot be denied their legitimate share. In this Age of Ayodhya, it should be recalled that Lord Ram went into exile obeying the wishes of his parents. Today, it is the parents of Bharat who are being exiled. India cannot abandon its tradition and heritage of filial duty, which is one of the cornerstones of Hindu belief. ‘Guard our guardians’ should be the mantra of the New Bharatiya Yug.
Prabhu Chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
(Follow him on X @PrabhuChawla)
