Quality of life of older women in urban India

Abstract

Greying of population is one of the major achievements and most significant newlinecharacteristics of the twenty-first century. It provides new opportunities as well as newlinechallenges especially for developing countries, as most of the older population is newlineconcentrated in these regions. The main challenge is to provide a healthy and quality newlinelife in the years added to older people s lives. In 2010, there were about 530 million newlineolder people globally, which is projected to increase to 2 billion by 2050. Over 80 per newlinecent of them will be from less developed countries, which currently account for about newline65 per cent of total older population globally. newlineIn India, there were 104 million older persons that account for about nine per cent of newlinetotal population (Census, 2011). India alone is home to about one-eighth of world s newlineolder population. India s older population is projected to triple (323 million) by 2050 newlinewhich will account for over 20 per cent of total population (UN, 2007). More newlinenoteworthy is the greater proportion of older women among total older population newlinewhich is revealed by latest Census (2011) that indicates that the sex ratio among 60 newlineyears and above cohort is 1033 women per 1000 men while in 80 years and above newlinecohort, sex ratio is even more favourable towards women i.e. there were 1137 women newlinefor every 1000 men. This phenomenon, when women outnumber men as they age is newlinecalled Feminisation of Ageing . It poses significant policy and programmatic newlinechallenges as older women in India face various socio-economic, environmental, newlinepsychological and health-related issues due to their increased vulnerability, because newlinethey are more likely to be widowed, have low economic security, lower educational newlineattainment, less labour force experience and more care giving responsibilities. newlineThe review of literature on Quality of Life (QOL) of older women in India reveals newlinethat empirical evidence on quality of life of older persons India in general and older newlinewomen in particular is limited,