India’s population is growing old at its fastest pace since Independence by 35.5 per cent with 10.38 crore elderly people or those above 60 years of age in the country by 2011.

In contrast, the general population grew at its slowest rate in the last 50 years at 17.7 per cent in the period to 121.09 crore.

More worryingly, for the government that is trying to work on various social security measures, the old age dependency ratio was at an all time high of 14.2 per cent in the period, said a new report by the Central Statistics Office.

Called the Elderly in India 2016, the report is based on the Population Census 2011 and NSSO 60th round report of 2004.

“Both the share and size of elderly population is increasing over time. From 5.6 per cent in 1961 the proportion has increased to 8.6 per cent in 2011,” said the report, adding that on an average, population of the elderly increased by one percentage point amongst States.

Reflecting the need for regular income, the proportion of elderly people who were not working also dropped while those employed as marginal workers and main workers (working for over six months in a year) rose marginally.

In the rural areas, 33.6 per cent of the elderly men and 71.6 for elderly women in 2011 were non-workers as against 34.4 per cent and 75.1 per cent respectively in 2001.

Nearly 54 per cent of elderly men and 88.7 of elderly women in cities were non-workers in 2011 as against 56 per cent and 91 per cent respectively in 2001.

Kerala with 12.6 per cent of its population belonging to over 60 years of age had the highest proportion of elderly in the country while the least proportion of 4 per cent was reported in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Amongst States, the old age dependency ratio that indicates the proportion of productive population in the economy varied from as high as 19.6 per cent in Kerala to 10.4 per cent in Delhi.

To provide social security and benefits to the old, the Centre has been working on various initiatives such as the National Policy on Older Persons and the National Policy on Senior Citizens. The Finance Ministry has recently also notified the rules for the Senior Citizens Welfare Fund that would subsidise the premium payment for the vulnerable group.

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