Urban ageing and public policies
The urban ageing landscape is mired within changing socio-economic circumstancesand complexities.
India is ageing and urbanising rapidly. Demographic and socio-economic factors are
restructuring the population across time, space, and place. By 2036, urban India is expected
to house 40 per cent of the population, and by 2050, the older adult population will likely
double to around 20 per cent.
The 2011 Census recorded 71 million older women and 67 million older men, withprojections showing that by 2050, the number of older women will exceed older men by
18.4 million.
Women tend to outlive their husbands either due to increased longevity or the age gap
between spouses. While men often benefit from spousal support into old age, wives andwidows frequently have to fend for themselves, rely on filial support, work well into old age,or depend on government support.
Unfortunately, women’s longer lives are often spent in poor health, with age-related
disabilities, caregiving burdens, illiteracy, poverty, increased financial dependency, social
marginalisation, and exposure to elder abuse and gender discrimination.
While the feminisation of ageing is evident, what is less apparent is the phenomenon ofolder women living alone for extended periods post-widowhood.
Around 15 million older adults live alone in India, most of whom are women.
The distinction between choosing to live alone, as seen in developed contexts, and being
somewhat compelled to live alone is significant, and raises concerns.
Unlike in the West, India is ageing before a significant proportion of its population has had
the opportunity to secure gainful employment for long periods and save for old age.
Old-age poverty is a pressing issue both in urban and rural India, demanding policy
attention.
While most developing countries expect older adults to support themselves through work or
pension savings or receive filial support from their families, current public policies often failto incentivise filial support mechanisms or guarantee meaningful and extended work lives
for older adults.

A handful of countries have opted for universal pensions, but India has relied onmeans-tested, non-contributory pensions.
However, concerns about coverage extent and the diminished real value of pensions due toinflation are legitimate.
The age threshold for widow pensions, currently at 65 years, should align with the life
expectancy within the below poverty line (BPL) income group and accommodate the yearsof life lost due to cumulative disadvantage.
While pension amounts may be critically low to cover basic needs, most elderly continue towork as long as they can, often in precarious conditions, with the current policy offering
little respite to the frail.
The premises of urban aging—one being that filial responsibility can provide for the needs ofthe elderly—are in question as India witnesses a gradual erosion of the traditional joint
family system where the younger generation is geographically dispersed from their homes,
resulting in a shift to nuclear families or by leaving older parents behind.
Second, even when older parents migrate to join their adult children in urban spaces, theavailability of filial support is in no way assured as adult children are grappling to find astable income footing and are wedged between supporting parents’ requirements and theirown family needs.
The third premise is that if older adults work late, beyond the legal retirement age, thenthey would be able to self-support themselves. While this seems like a convincing argument
at first glance, it is oblivious to reality.
Finding opportunities post-retirement age is a bigger challenge as the employment market
seems unable to fully utilise the demographic dividend.
While older men may find gainful employment post-retirement, older women tend to loseout and are often compelled to opt for work that is closer home, usually one that is
low-paying and irregular.
A fair question to ask here is: Can existing public infrastructure, transport solutions, societal
norms, and market conditions enable older women to find and access gainful employment?
The job market is obviously unable to reciprocate to the cumulative disadvantages a woman
endures through her life course and the fact that she brings far fewer resources to the table
as compared to men.

The urban ageing landscape is therefore mired within changing socio-economic
circumstances and complexities.
The lack of gender-sensitive and age-friendly programming in urban landscapes for public
infrastructure tends to allow undetected inequalities to become further entrenched,pervasive, and longer lasting.
Public policy efforts are therefore needed to mitigate the risks that older adults, especiallywomen, face, to reduce or remove the burden of healthcare expenditure and create safer
and more supportive environments for healthy ageing – where both older men and women
will be able to lead extended work lives.
The onus has to be on designing age-sensitive and gender-responsive policies with policycoherence that target the root causes of age and gender-related inequalities within society.
(Allen P Ugargol is an associate professor of practice, public policy, and Ashitha Vijayan is anacademic associate, Centre for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore)