Care and Support for the Elderly Population in India: Results from a Survey of the Aged in Rural North Karnataka (india)

One of the most important consequences of fertility control and of improvements in the expectation of life at birth of the populations all over the World, is the ' Aging of the Population' characterized by the relatively rapid increase of the aged population i.e. the population aged 60 years and above. The terms elderly population and aged population are used synonymously in this paper. While the economically developed countries are already preoccupied with the issues emerging from the aging of their populations, the developing countries must start immediately to give due consideration to these issues if they have to avoid serious problems in the near future. With a large population, second only to China, India has to give serious attention to the issues relating to the aged population. The size of the elderly population in India increased from 20 million in 1951 to 57 million in 1991 and is expected to be about 84 million in 2001, 107million in 2010, 198 million in 2030 and 326 million in 2050 (United Nations, 1995). A majority of this population will be living in rural areas. In the Indian Society, the cultural values and the traditional practices emphasize that the elderly members of the family be treated with honor and respect. The families of the aged persons are expected to ensure the needed care and support for the aged. However, recent changes in the size and structure of families have caused the re-arrangement of the roles and functions of the members in the families. The Governments in India both Central and State, have taken up the responsibility to take care of the aged and have started certain schemes to provide care and support for the aged. Also, there are some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have undertaken the work of taking care of the aged. However, it is still the family that plays the most important role in India in this respect. An attempt is made in this study to present the Governmental and the non-governmental (NGO) care and support that have become available for the elderly population in India and to analyze in some detail the family support for the aged and the changes that are occurring in the same. Attention is also focussed on the factors affecting the care and the support for the aged in the families, and the perceptions of the aged regarding the care and support they are getting from their family members. For this purpose the data from a survey of the aged persons conducted in four villages of North Karnataka (India) are analyzed. The survey was personally conducted by a researcher as a source of basic material for his Ph.D. dissertation which has been approved and the degree awarded by the Karnatak University, Dharwad (Karnataka, India) (Wadakannavar, 1992)