India's Senior Citizen Population On The Rise: UN Report Highlights Demographic Shift

The senior citizen population in India will rapidly grow in the coming decades, according to a UN report.

The 'India Ageing Report 2023,' a collaborative effort by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), released on Wednesday (28 September) revealed a demographic shift on the horizon.

By 2050, the report predicts that a staggering one-fifth of India's populace will be aged 60 and above, signaling a seismic shift in the country's age distribution.

Moreover, it forecasts that by the close of this century, the elderly population will surpass the number of children aged zero to 14.

As of 1 July 2022, India was home to 149 million individuals aged 60 and above, constituting approximately 10.5 per cent of the nation's populace.

However, the 'India Ageing Report 2023' foresees a rapid doubling of this figure to 20.8 per cent, totalling 347 million by 2050.

The most alarming projection is that by the end of the century, seniors will represent over 36 per cent of India's total population.

The report shows that many elderly people in India face challenges. More than 40 per cent of them are among the poorest in terms of wealth.

This financial vulnerability affects their quality of life and their ability to get essential healthcare, as explained in the UNFPA's India Ageing Report 2023.

Another finding from the report is that 18.7 per cent of India's elderly don't have any source of income. This is higher than the national average in 17 states, ranging from 19.3 per cent in Uttarakhand to a very high 42.4 per cent in Lakshadweep.

Currently, India has a lot of young people, with 65 per cent of the population under 35 years old.

However, the number of elderly people varies from state to state.

States like Himachal Pradesh and Punjab had a higher percentage of senior citizens in 2021, and this gap is expected to grow by 2036.

On the other hand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are likely to see more elderly residents between 2021 and 2036, but it will still be less than the national average in these states.

Between 2014 and 2021, a significant amount of Rs 1,259.6 billion was spent on programmes to help elderly people through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts. This represents a big increase of 182 per cent in seven years.

However, despite the increase in CSR spending on the elderly, the report points out that this spending has consistently been less than 0.3 per cent of the total CSR spending since 2014.