Ageing, Socio-economic Disparities and Health Outcomes: Some Evidence from Rural India

Employing data from Census 2001and the NSS 52nd and 60th rounds, this study examines the following: (i) inter-state variations in the distribution of rural aged by three broad social groups and a host of age categories, (ii) level of their per capita monthly consumption expenditure to gauge changes in their economic conditions over the past two NSS rounds, (iii) their health conditions both by observed social groups and selected age categories, and (iv) socio-economic correlates of old age health – both current and relative. To avoid comparability problems between the 52nd and 60th rounds, health analysis was made for the latter period alone. A few notable observations of the study are: (i) ageing in India is a wide spread phenomenon and therefore an issue for serious consideration, (ii) almost in every state the aged are concentrated in rural areas and need to be weighed accordingly in formulations of old age policies, (iii) feminization of ageing, widowhood and rapid growth of the older old are emerging issues for researchers, service providers, insurers, 50+ market analysts, and those in the realm of public policies, and (iv) old age health is found to be critically dependent on socio-economic conditions including access to public health facilities. The specific value addition provided by this paper is its focus on rural ageing that has so far been paid minimal attention in the recent economic literature on ageing in India. [IEG WP290] http://www.iegindia.org/workpap/wp290.pdf