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.

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GUWAHATI, India/KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Severe floods in India have affected more than 1.6 million people, buried hundreds of villages and almost submerged a national park, forcing wildlife to seek refuge on roads, authorities said on Wednesday.

With the weather office forecasting heavy rain for at least another 48 hours, the outlook is grim for the northeastern tea-growing state of Assam, which suffered its worst floods four years ago that killed 124 people and displaced six million.

In neighboring Nepal, flash floods and landslides swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days, home ministry official Yadav Koirala told Reuters on Wednesday.

Floods and landslides are common in India and Nepal during the June-September monsoon season and the death toll runs into the hundreds every year.

“The situation has turned from bad to worse since Tuesday and over a million people have been shifted to relief camps,” Assam’s water resources minister Keshab Mahanta said.

The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have burst their banks – affecting more than half of the region’s 32 districts.

Police and rescue workers said at least 12 people had drowned across the state of Assam in recent days.

Animals from the state’s national parks came out onto roads built up on banks and other high ground as the flood inundated forests.

The state has five national parks, including the Kaziranga National Park, which is home to two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhinoceroses.

“More than 80 percent of the park is under water,” said Suvasis Das, a forestry official in the park.

Forest officials said they have rescued a 3-month-old rhino that took shelter in a backyard in a village. At least 20 hog deer were either washed away or drowned.

Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal urged authorities to provide safe drinking water to prevent the outbreak of disease.

(Reporting by Biswajyoti Das and Gopal Sharma; Writing by Malini Menon; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Robert Birsel)

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