Thanks to Rachita Prasad and BBC Online News for the Headline.
By 2050 it is estimated that one in five Indians will be over the age of 60. In a culture where traditionally young people looked after their elderly parents a different model is developing.
Young people are more likely to move away for work and will have to be mobile to continue their careers. Thus it is not possible for them to stay and look after elderly parents particularly when they become infirm or are not well.
So what are the options? Well apparently it is an incredibly big market and is attracting forward thinking start-up businesses in areas which support the elderly to live independently , and their customers are not just the elderly but also the children of the elderly who want to know their parents are looked after if they cannot be there for them.
The reality though is a substantial number of India’s elderly population do not have pensions to support buying into these support services. So the Government will have to take some of the slack. This year the state of Kerlala in India became the first to pass a Law which ensured provision of rights to affordable care, legal aid , digital inclusion and safe public spaces.
However it is still a worrying situation , and perhaps the ethic of the family looking after elderly relatives should not be lost.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
