Quality of Life for Elderly Index

Quality of Life for Elderly Index has been created by the Institute for Competitiveness and is released by Dr Bibek Debroy who is Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The index highlights the problems faced by the elderly and sheds light on issues that remained unaddressed. The index includes four major pillars:  Financial Well-being, secondly Social Well-being, thirdly Health System and lastly Income Security. The index includes eight sub pillars as well these are  Economic Empowerment, Employment and Educational Attainment, Social Status, Physical Security, Basic Health, Psychological Wellbeing, Social Security and Enabling Environment. Dr Bibek Debroy Chairman of EAC-PM said India is a young society with a resulting demographic dividend. But every country goes through a fast process of demographic transition so India has a greying population. So he requested the Institute of Competitiveness to do a report on issues that are not-mentioned faced by the elderly population. The Index report identifies regional patterns of an ageing population in Indian states to assess the ageing population across the country. Rajasthan topped the list in Aged states which means it has an elderly population of more than 5 million, Himachal Pradesh a lead state in relatively- the Ages States means it has an elderly population of less than 5 million, Mizoram topped in the North Eastern States and Chandigarh topped in Union Territories Categories.

The elderly population is making a much bigger proportion in our population than before. Physical changes that occur in the older population are Hair whitens, Wrinkles, Teeth are lost, Strength fade, although there is some good news today’s generation looking forward to sounder bodies and healthier life in old age than any previous generation. Some kinds of classical conditioning take longer in older people, Verbal learning difficulties as it is found that it takes longer to learn a list of words may be difficult for the older age population, difficulty in retrieving information, performance deficits, adjustment problems, loss of a spouse, etc. but apart from these difficulties creative contribution in elderly especially in retirement years have been witnessed. 

The report gives us insight into how well we are doing to support our aging population and their all-around well-being.  It broadens up understanding for the needs and opportunities of the elderly population in our country. We need to realize that apart from pension and economic support other issues need to be focused on to broaden the policy-making for the elderly population. The Index highlights a crucial issue that says that the best way to improve the lives of our current and future generations of older people is by investing in their health care, education, and employment opportunities for young people today. A proper diagnostic tool to understand the difficulties of the aging population so that planning for the elderly becomes smooth for the policymakers. The index measures domains like Economic, Health, and Social well-being of older people to provide an in-depth understanding of the issues in the older population. The index promotes healthy competition among the states by doing fair ranking so that states can improvise on the issues they were lacking in. Using the index states can identify the areas on which they need to work upon to provide their young generation with a comfortable life. This index is a positive step towards identifying area which needs improvement and grabs the opportunity to work for current and upcoming generations.