Human rights of older persons in india - a national study

The population of India has approximately tripled during the last 50 years, but the number of elderly Indians has increased more than fourfold.  Better medical facilities, care and liberal family planning policies made the elderly the fastest growing section of the society in India - average life expectancy has also gone up to over 70 years today.

This survey of 50,000 older people (age 60+) was undertaken to assess the status of the violation of human rights of older persons In India. In view of lack of core policies on the protection of older people, the study also focused on coming up with recommendations to policy makers, planners and decision makers so that human rights of older persons could be respected in future and a standard framework could be developed to protect every older person’s human rights.

Main observations and conclusions:

• for most of the older persons Human Rights is a new term for their basic rights. Awareness about Human Rights of Older Persons among older persons is negligible
• transformation of traditional joint family system into nuclear or small family systems is one of the main factors responsible for violation of human rights of older persons
• in urban areas cases of violation of human rights of elderly population are on the rise in comparison to rural areas - due to small/nuclear family systems, lack of intergenerational interaction, less social interaction of older persons, age discrimination, etc.
• young older people (i.e. in the age-group of 60-70) are more aggressive towards protection of their human rights
• people entering in the bracket of 60-70 years don’t like the “Old Age” tag being attached to them. Interestingly, they don’t digest the fact that they have become old, that’s why they feel hurt when treatment or behavior of other people is changed towards them due to their growing age
• to decrease the incidences of age-discrimination, age-discriminatory policies like retirement policies in both government and public sector need to be amended
• today, India urgently needs an inclusive social security programme for older persons at grass root level while utilising tools like value based education, awareness generation, research and advocacy in order to protect the human rights of older persons.