Looking beyond the current demographic scenario: changing age composition, ageing and growing health issues for elderly in India and Pakistan

Moneer Alam, Delhi University Enclave
Mehtab Karim, Aga Khan University

Objectives: To look into the problem of health insecurity among the aged in South Asia in general and India and Pakistan in particular. The paper, argues that the elderly face serious insecurity problems due to sustained poverty, inadequate familial transfers, privatization of health services (user charges), and compressions in real public spending on health. All these may enhance vulnerabilities, and force the aged to suffer from serious insecurities over the coming years. It may also create certain conflicts between the public and the private interests. Data Source: Published data from available census records and surveys conducted in India and Pakistan. Policy Relevance: The paper, suggests creating social insurance mechanism with finances drawn from a mix of public and private sources. It also makes out a case to account for the age structure changes in all new economic formulations in the region, especially in India and Pakistan.