HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 27: Model Answer

Question: The elderly are not dependents; they are assets, still after 75 years of India’s  independence geriatric services are neglected. Discuss    (20 marks, 400 words)

Answer: 

INTRODUCTION

• Since India’s life expectancy increased from 50 (1970–75) to 70 years (2014–18), there are already 137 million elders (people over 60), and that number is projected to rise by 40% to 195 million in 2031 and 300 million by 2050.
• While one viewpoint might see them as dependents (and thus a burden on the economy), another viewpoint might see them as a potential asset: a vast pool of knowledgeable, experienced individuals.

BODY

• The two main factors that determine whether they become dependents or contributing members of society are their capability and health-
• With the age health care needs changes:
• The elderly population generally requires a wider range of medical care.
• The provision of a variety of high-quality, reasonably priced, and easily accessible health and care services for the elderly will likely present the biggest challenge for the nation as we transition to a demography where the growth rate of the elderly is significantly higher than that of the young.
• They require a wide range of specialised medical services, including at-home or remote consultations, physical therapy, mental health counselling, and diagnostic and pharmaceutical services.

• In smaller cities and rural areas access to basic, high-quality healthcare is severely lacking.
• The situation for the elderly is made worse by elements like familial neglect, low education levels, socio-cultural beliefs and stigma, low trust in institutionalised health-care services, and affordability.
• For the elderly, whose ability to understand, respond to, and seek medical care for various ailments is already limited due to physical, financial, and occasionally psychological constraints, unequal access to health care exacerbates their problems.
• As a result, the majority of them neglect their elder years.

Government Schemes: Completely inadequate

• Sadly, elderly health care has received very little attention. The majority of elderly people come from lower socioeconomic groups (including many who are destitute).
• They deteriorate in health as a result of not being able to pay for medical expenses. Their inability to make a living accelerates the vicious cycle of bad health and unaffordable medical costs.
• As a result, they are not only economically inactive but also reliant on support from their families or other people. Their mental and emotional issues are made worse by this as well as poor physical health. Although the government does have programmes to address these issues and protect the elderly, they are wholly insufficient.

• A NITI Aayog report claims that 400 million Indians lack access to private health insurance, despite Ayushman Bharat, the government’s health insurance programme for the underprivileged. There are undoubtedly many elderly people among the uninsured. Elderly pension plans are available from both the Centre and the States, but they only offer pitiful amounts of money, as little as 350 to 400 dollars per month in some States. Even this is not always the case.
• A law passed in 2007 mandates that every district hospital have specialised geriatric care facilities run by a physician. The Government of India, however, claimed in a status report submitted to the Supreme Court of India in 2019 that 16 States and Union Territories (out of 35) lacked even one ward or bed specifically for the elderly.

Opportunities in challenges

• Given the changing demographics, India should rethink its entire health-care strategy for the ensuing decades, giving the elderly priority. The development of adequate services for seniors will benefit all other age groups because they require the widest range of health care services. India needs to aggressively take certain steps in addition to enacting laws promoting insurance and health care for the elderly, while also looking for opportunities in the face of this difficulty.
• India needs to rapidly increase its public healthcare spending and invest heavily in the creation of well-equipped and staffed medical care facilities and home healthcare and rehabilitation services.

• Presently, India has a major deficit in infrastructure and skilled medical care resources, with 1.3 hospital beds, 0.65 physicians, and 1.3 nurses for every 1,000 people. Over the next decade, we have the potential to add more than 3 million beds, 1.54 million doctors and 2.4 million nurses. We need to accelerate implementation of programmes such as the National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE).
• The Ayushman Bharat and PM-JAY ecosystems need to be further expanded and similar, special health-care coverage schemes and services need to be created for senior citizens from the lower economic strata.
• The National Digital Health Mission has tremendous potential to expand medical consultations into the interiors of the country. However, this requires a digital literacy campaign for senior citizens.

CONCLUSION

• These essential steps will help to convert elders into a massive resource for socio-cultural and economic development, giving an altogether different perspective to “demographic dividend”. After all, the proof of a truly evolved and caring nation lies in the way it not only nurtures its young but also how it cares for its aging population.