Psycho-social challenges of elderly

Pages:173-177
Shalini Singh (Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)
Nishat Afroz (MMV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

The world’s population is aging and all countries in the world are experiencing growth in the number and proportion of older persons. India is no exception to this demographic transition. With the rapidly increasing number of aged, the care of elderly has emerged as an important issue before the country. This change presents wide-ranging and complex health, social, and economic challenges, both current and future, to which this diverse and heterogeneous country must rapidly adapt. This paper is an attempt to review and discuss the context, scope, and magnitude of India’s demographic changes. Further it elaborated the need and concerns of elderly, various psycho-social problems faced by them and impact of population aging on different sphere of country’s resources. This paper also discussed the increasing inclination of elderly towards the old age homes and the possible reasons behind it. This chapter also presents an overview of several governmental, recent and ongoing efforts and initiatives, to adapt to population aging and provide support to older adults and their families. It concludes with recommendations that may serve as a productive next step forward, keeping in mind the need for urgent and timely action on the part of government, NGO’s, researchers, and general population.