Unhealthy, Insecure, and Dependent Elders

India faces an exponential growth in the proportion of its elderly in the near future, but there is no specific policy of substance to deal with the many ramifications of this development. What little exists hardly does justice to the country’s elderly poor, who are forced to contend with daunting challenges late in life when they have few resources and are partially or entirely dependent on others. More alarmingly, reliable data on the elderly and their situation is lacking. Unless the state acknowledges its responsibility to the elderly, without hoping that the market will come to its aid, today’s inexcusable callousness to the aged may seem mild when the crisis that is waiting to happen hits us.