Opinion
Gender and Age: We need a female perspective on ageing populations
Summary
- With advances in healthcare extending lifespans globally, a new problem has emerged: ageing populations. However, a perspective that’s often missing is its unique impact on women, who not only tend to outlive men but also experience specific social disadvantages.
A recent news story in a prominent US daily reported that a number of non-profits in Washington DC are distributing robotic pets to residents aged 60 and older in some areas of the city to ease their loneliness and isolation. While in the US, about 28% of people aged 65 and older live by themselves, the number in that age group is projected to increase to 82 million by 2050, which will be 23% of the total population.
As the world witnesses a profound demographic transformation with a steadily growing proportion of older people, in 2020, for the first time, the number of people aged 60 years and older surpassed the number of children under five.
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In Asia, Japan leads the way as the most aged society, with nearly 30% of its population over 65. China is likely to have over a quarter of its population over 60 by 2040. In India the number of elderly persons is expected to increase by 56 million by 2031. Further, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2050, about 80% of older adults will live in low- and middle-income countries.
Apart from affecting macroeconomic factors such as the labour force, physical and human capital, savings and consumption, an ageing population also poses serious challenges to a country’s healthcare system.
According to a 2022 study that used a multinational database from 2000 to 2019, the burden of caring for an elderly population negatively affects a country’s economic growth: every 1% increase in the healthcare burden was found to result in a 0.083% decrease in its GDP growth rate.
According to WHO estimates, every fourth person across the world experiences social isolation. Over 2 million people in England over the age of 75 live alone, and more than a million older people say they go over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.
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Loneliness persistence also increases with disability, especially for women, who are more likely to experience both earlier and greater disability. A US daily recently published a first-person account of a distraught daughter who discovered her disabled mother’s unheard and unopened voice messages from 2018 to 2020, the year her mother, who lived in a nearby care centre, passed away.
Studies highlighted how functional disabilities and poor self-rated health impede social engagement, leading to loneliness—more commonly for women. Further, they face greater disadvantages of ‘multiple forms of inequality’ throughout their lifespan, being mostly in unpaid informal work with limited or no access to social protection, income security or savings, and are more likely to be poor, widowed, living alone and suffering worse health.
In India, an exploratory research study among older women residents of a care home in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, noted that they “encounter tremendous hardship in their twilight years as they fight against the twin challenges of patriarchy and vulnerability, and factors like family, caste, class, education, marital status, economic independence, religion, and region, exacerbate their vulnerabilities."
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Now, the ratio of older people in the global population is likely to be one to six by 2050. The UN’s decade for ‘healthy ageing’ (2021–30) is underway. As the global campaign urges, nations must include ‘social’ perspectives in policies and programmes to fight social isolation and loneliness. The agenda for action must focus on the special needs of women.
The author is a former director general, Doordarshan and All India Radio; and former press secretary to the President of India.
