Population of elderly to touch 100 million mark by 2013

In a written reply to the House, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The Population Projection made by Technical Group on Population Projections indicated that 100 million mark is expected to be reached in 2013."

The projection made by the United Nations has indicated that India will have 198 million people aged 60 and above. By 2050, the figure will reach 326 million, Azad said.

On steps taken to ensure medical facilities for the elderly, he said, "Government has launched the National Program for Health Care of Elderly (NPHCE) in 2010-11 to address health related problems of elderly people."

The major components of the NPHCE during 11th Five Year Plan were establishment of dedicated hospitals for elderly and creating Department of Geriatric at identified medical centres.

"Funds have been released to eight Regional Geriatric Institutions and 91 districts in 20 states," he said.

Government also plans to construct 30-bedded Department of Geriatric in eight identified Regional Medical Institutions in different regions of the country.

In reply to a question on "unsafe abortions", the Minister said, "As per the estimates published by researchers from Guttmacher Institute, New York and WHO in the Lancet in Jan 2012, unsafe abortions constitute 65 per cent of the total abortions in the South Central Asian sub-region."

Estimates of the proportion of unsafe abortions are not provided separately for India which is one of the countries in this sub-region, he said.