Chandigarh: Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Chandigarh lead the first national rankings on the Quality of Life for Elderly Index. This was released on Wednesday by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.
The Index was created by the Institute for Competitiveness to assess the challenge of ageing in India and determine the preparedness of states to deal with a rising elderly population.
The Index on Quality of Life for Elderly 2021 represents a beginning in taking the first step in establishing a complete understanding of the elderly population around India’s States and Union territories. It observes 45 different indicators across four key domains identified as being of utmost importance for older people, namely Financial Well-being, Social Well-being, Health System, and Income Security.
The report state that India will be growing older, with persons above the age of 65 becoming the fastest-growing age group by 2050. Greying is not very rapid in India, as only 8.6 pc of its population are elderly. However, by 2050 the elderly population will grow by three times to 319 million, accounting for 19.5 pc of the total population, the report point out.
Rajasthan is the top scorer with an elderly population of more than 5 million in the aged states category defined as states. While, Himachal Pradesh a little below to 5 million population and Mizoram leads in the North Eastern States category and Chandigarh among all UTs.
“India is often portrayed as a young society, with a consequent demographic dividend. But, as with every country that goes through a fast process of demographic transition, India also has a greying cum ageing problem,” said Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM Bibek Debroy.