No country for the old

Sixty-plus is India's fastest growing demographic. Yet, public policy largely ignores the elderly

Kisturi Devi, 62, lives with her two daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren in Ballana village of Alwar district in Rajasthan. All three women are widowed. Since 2013, Devi has been receiving an old-age pension of Rs 500 per month — half the amount that would qualify her as living below the poverty line of Rs 32 per day in rural India.

Nearly one in 10 Indians is over 60 years old, a fact often lost amid the economic bombast of India’s ‘demographic dividend’.

Devi is among India’s 100 million elderly people, numerous enough to form one of the 15 most populous countries