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Do We Care Enough for the Elderly?
The increasing proportion of the elderly population calls for proper planning and implementation of institutionalised care services for them. In this context, the distribution of geriatric care services across time, region, economic class, gender, and ownership of the old age homes operating in the National Capital Region are surveyed.
The elderly population in India is the second largest in the world with its share increasing over time from 5.6% in 1961 to 8% in 2011 (GoI 2016). This is further proposed to rise to a whopping 20% by 2050 (HelpAge India 2015). This implies that in another 40 years, the usual pyramidal configuration of the Indian population will take the form of a cylindrical structure, with almost as many old persons as the young. The rising proportion of the elderly in the total population, along with growing levels of urbanisation and modernisation, evoke the need to understand and assess if institutionalisation of care services for the aged could act as a reasonable substitute for the necessary support to be provided to them in the future.
The present study surveys all the existing old age homes operating in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) and looks at the distribution of geriatric care services across time, region, economic class, gender and ownership.
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