India ranks 73rd in elderly care: Survey Durgesh Nandan Jha TNN New Delhi: No country for old men. The title of a popular Hollywood film suits India well. The country with the second-largest aged population in the world has been ranked amongst the poorest of nations to grow old in a global survey. Global Age Watch Index (GAWI), developed with the UN fund for population and development which was released on Monday on International Day of Older Persons, ranks India a poor 73 out of the 91 countries sampled. India’s ranking is woefully low compared to neighbour Sri Lanka that has been ranked 36 while Nepal (77), Pakistan (89) and Afghanistan (91) score even worse. The ageing index, calculated using 13 indicators under four domains namely income security, healthcare, employment and education and an enabling environment, ranks Sweden as the best country to grow old followed by Norway, Germany, Netherlands and Canada while the US languishes at eighth place. “India fares poorly in almost all four domains: health status ranking (85), employment and education (73), enabling environment (72) and income security (54),” the GAWI report states. Many experts point out that global studies do not take into account social, psychological and financial security to the elderly by family. "In India, family is the biggest security and support for the elderly unlike western countries," sai Dr Ashok Seth, renowned cardiologist. Mathew Cherian, chief executive officer of Help Age India said the low level of public spending on health in India is an area of major concern. “Between 1996-97 and 2005-06, the total government spending on health was stagnant at about 1% of the GDP, and the public expenditure elasticity with respect to GDP was at 0.94, lower than the average for low-income countries. Despite efforts to increase public spending after 2005-06 including the adoption of National Rural Health Mission, the expenditure has increased only marginally to 1.2% of the GDP in 2009-10,” said Cherian. Several advocacy groups have been demanding the government to bring in a law for universal pension for the elderly and health insurance for all. “The elderly pension given presently is too less, ranging between Rs 200 and 500. Our demand is that the government should give at least Rs 2,000 monthly to the elderly. Also, universal health coverage or insurance is a must,” said Manjira Khurana, the head of advocacy and communication at Help Age India.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 12:14:15 +0000
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