Introduction
In the 2000s and 2010s, optimistic discourse around India’s demographic dividend emphasised the productive potential of its fast-growing youth population.[1],[2] However, some studies have shifted the focus[3] to the long-term consequences of demographic ageing.[4] Fertility levels in all states except Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, and Manipur are below the replacement rate of 2.1, indicating an imminent decline in the country’s youth population.[5] Meanwhile, the share of those over 60 years is estimated to grow by 41 percent between 2021 and 2031.[6]
Policy responses to India’s demographic developments have been limited.[7] In 1999, the government adopted the National Policy for Older Persons (NPOP) to mark the International Year of Older Persons.[8] While the policy recognised the societal and economic impacts of demographic ageing, it failed to address them effectively, lacking clear goals, budget allocations, implementation guidelines, and evaluation mechanisms. In 2011, a draft National Policy for Senior Citizens was prepared;[9] however, the 1999 policy remained in effect as the draft was never finalised.[10],[11] In 2020, reports suggested that a new policy on ageing was in development, but no details were made public.[12] An application filed by these authors under the Right to Information Act 2005 yielded no information on the policy’s status.
While the absence of adequate policy responses has resulted in incoherent state action, the government has not altogether ignored the needs of older adults. A number of schemes and laws have been implemented to address this demographic. This brief examines these measures, evaluating their focus and effectiveness to assess the government’s approach to demographic ageing. Although the primary focus is on central government initiatives, relevant state-level actions are also considered. It concludes with an analysis of the political will, reviewing electoral promises from the 2024 general election and retirement policies as indicators of political parties’ perspectives on demographic ageing. Finally, it discusses the short- and long-term implications for policy action.
Table 1: Schemes and Laws for Older Adults in India
| Year |
Scheme/Law |
Scope |
Area of focus |
| 1995; 2006-07; 2007-08 |
Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) |
The scheme started in 1995 with a monthly pension of INR 75 to “destitute” older adults as defined by the relevant State/Union Territory. In 2006-07, the pension amount was raised to INR 200. In 2007-08, all below poverty line (BPL) senior citizens became eligible for the scheme.[13] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2000 |
Annapurna Yojana |
The scheme provides 10 kg of food grains per month to senior citizens eligible for the IGNOAPS but unable to access it due to inadequate coverage or other constraints.[14] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2004 |
National Pension Scheme (NPS) |
The NPS, a defined-contribution pension scheme for government employees, replaced the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to ease the financial burden on government budgets.[15] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2007 |
Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (MWPSC Act) |
The Act entitles parents over 60 years to a monthly allowance from their children if they are unable to support themselves. It also directed the state to establish old-age homes for senior citizens’ care.[16] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2011 |
National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE) |
The programme aims to provide older adults with easy access to affordable healthcare through district and regional health centres and specialised geriatric centres. It promotes ‘active ageing’ and creates convergence between initiatives and ministries. Crucially, it mandates the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) to gather detailed data on the needs and status quo of India’s older adults.[17] |
Healthcare |
| 2015 |
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) |
The APY allows informal workers aged 18-40 years to contribute between INR 1,000 and INR 5,000 monthly towards a pension corpus. The government supplements this contribution with an additional amount equal to 50 percent of the individual’s contribution, up to INR 1,000 per month.[18] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2017 |
Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) |
RVY provides BPL adults over 60 years with physical disabilities access to aids such as walking sticks, walkers, crutches, tripods/quadpods, hearing aids, wheelchairs, dentures, and spectacles.[19] |
Healthcare |
| 2019 |
Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PMSYM) |
PMSYM incentivises savings among unorganised sector workers by allowing those aged 18-29 years to contribute INR 55 monthly and workers above 29 years to contribute INR 100. These amounts are deposited into a corpus, guaranteeing monthly pension payments of INR 3,000 to workers after they turn 60.[20] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
| 2021 |
Senior Able Citizens Re-Employment in Dignity (SACRED) Scheme |
SACRED is an online portal where companies can advertise job openings for older adults, leveraging their experience and offering employment and income opportunities.[21] |
Employment |
| 2024 |
Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) |
UPS offers government employees an alternative to the NPS, requiring a monthly contribution of 10 percent of the employee’s salary, with the government contributing to 18.5 percent. It also guarantees a fixed pension on retirement.[22] |
Financial support / Sustenance |
Source: Authors’ own, using various official documents.
Current Laws and Schemes: Successes and Failures
An analysis of the laws and schemes reveals certain trends. Six of the nine schemes focus on providing financial support or sustenance to older adults, indicating the widespread poverty among this demographic in India. Over 40 percent of older adults fall within the poorest quintile of the population.[23] Two of the remaining schemes address healthcare needs. Given that healthcare is a primary cause of indebtedness among urban households, these initiatives, along with others like the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, explain the need for such schemes.[24]
Two key concerns arise from these findings. First, policymakers view older adults as passive recipients of support from the state or families. Five of the nine schemes/laws—IGNOAPS, Annapurna Yojana, MWPSC Act, RVY, and NPHCE—focus on state- or family-sponsored support for older adults. While such support is essential, it overlooks the productive potential of older adults, many of whom are already contributing significantly. According to the India Ageing Report 2023, over half of the men and a quarter of the women aged 60 years and above remain active in the labour market.[25] Despite the opportunity to harness this demographic for a potential ‘longevity dividend’, there are few attempts to enhance their productive capacities or leverage their extended lifespans meaningfully. This contrasts with countries that are further along in their demographic transition, where policies actively aim to engage older citizens in productive roles for longer periods.[26]
While SACRED was launched for a similar purpose, it fails to meaningfully advance this cause. Being an English-language online portal, it inherently excludes the vast majority of the over-60 population, many of whom lack of digital literacy[27] and English fluency.[28] Moreover, the government has not disclosed data on the portal’s usage or success. Additionally, the authors found SACRED’s job-search function to be non-functional on multiple visits between February and June 2024, nullifying its utility for older adults searching for work.
Figure 1: SACRED Portal Homepage
Source: SACRED Online Portal: Homepage[29]
Figure 2: ‘Not Found’ Page on the SACRED Portal
Source: SACRED Online Portal: Jobs Available[30]
The Indian state has committed significant public expenditure to support its older population, treating them as passive recipients. Despite the 1999 NPOP acknowledging that it was “neither feasible nor desirable for the State alone” to provide for older adults, the schemes and laws applicable to them continue to be state-funded and executed.[31] While not as critical as the challenges faced by more developed European Union countries struggling to fund their well-entrenched social security and pension systems,[32] this approach is likely to stress India’s financial and administrative capacities.
The severity of this financial burden became evident in the early 2000s with the OPS. This defined-benefits scheme guaranteed retired government employees approximately 50 percent of their last-drawn salary as a monthly pension,[33] without requiring any contributions from employees towards their pension corpus. Funded entirely through public finances, OPS strained government budgets due to rising lifespans and the cost of living. One estimate suggested that pension liabilities for the relatively small group of civil servants could reach 64 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).[34]
In 2004, the Government of India replaced the OPS with the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a defined-contribution scheme. The NPS corpus is funded by contributions from civil servants’ salaries during their employment, reducing the government’s fiscal burden. While mandatory for all civil servants who joined after 1 January 2004, the NPS was also made voluntarily available to the general public to encourage retirement savings.[35] This transition from OPS to NPS was a rare instance of long-term policy vision to reduce the fiscal burden of a demographic ageing stably, especially as government pensioners now outnumber active employees.[36] The only other similar action was the 2007 MWPSC Act, which shifted some responsibility for the care of older adults from the state to families.[37] Besides this brief period between 2004 and 2007, the government has done little to implement a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach to ageing as recommended in the 1999 NPOP.
Concerns regarding the effectiveness of other schemes persist, as limited data on their implementation indicates poor uptake and awareness. A study of 2,500 eligible RVY beneficiaries in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand found that only 25 percent were aware of the scheme. The study team could contact only 54.50 percent of the eligible beneficiaries through their registered mobile numbers. Of those contacted, only 9 percent had received assistive devices.[38] Additionally, many beneficiaries discarded devices like hearing aids and hand-driven tricycles due to defects. States had spent only 25.6 percent of the scheme’s allocated budget, incurring an average expenditure per beneficiary of only INR 3,253—less than half of the scheme’s outlay of INR 7,000 per beneficiary.[39]
Even more established government schemes, some of which have been in place for decades, suffer from low uptake. The LASI, whose first-wave report was published in 2020, revealed similar issues with the IGNOAPS, the Indira Gandhi National Women’s Pension Scheme (IGNWPS), and the Annapurna Scheme.[40] Despite being in existence for over two decades (nearly three decades in the case of the IGNOAPS), awareness of these schemes remains low. Just over half of eligible older adults were aware of IGNOAPS, 45 percent had heard of IGNWPS, and only 12 percent knew about the Annapurna Yojana.[41] Awareness was higher in rural areas than in urban areas, while women were less informed about schemes intended for both men and women (IGNOAPS and Annapurna). Additionally, discrepancies were observed across religious groups, with Muslim respondents being less aware of the schemes than Hindus.[42] Awareness of the MWPSC Act was even lower, with only 11.2 percent of the respondents having any knowledge of it.[43]
Utilisation of these schemes has been similarly limited. Less than one-third of eligible beneficiaries from BPL rural households benefited from IGNOAPS, and fewer than a quarter of eligible widows from BPL households received pensions under IGNWPS.[44] Older adults in rural areas were more likely to access these benefits than their urban counterparts.[45] Among the reasons for non-utilisation, over one-third of respondents cited a cumbersome process, while 17 percent of those eligible for IGNWPS mentioned difficulties in providing the necessary documentation. For both IGNOAPS and IGNWPS, about one-third of respondents reported delays in receiving benefits.[46]
Missing Political Will
Government policies and schemes have failed to address the needs or recognise the potential of India’s older adults. While the urgency for action grows with India’s demographic journey, recent developments indicate the poor political will to catalyse the desired policy changes.
For example, despite the significant costs of the OPS, politicians in multiple states have reverted or promised to revert to the scheme. Under pressure to secure the political support of strong public-sector unions that benefit from a defined-benefits scheme over defined-contribution ones, politicians have prioritised short-term political gains over long-term financial sustainability.[47] These state-level decisions fuelled nationwide protests in 2023, demanding a reversion to the OPS. While the principal opposition party did not include the issue in its electoral manifesto, senior functionaries sought to capitalise on this opportunity by promising to reinstate the OPS if elected in the 2024 Union elections.[48],[49]
Mounting pressure to revert to the OPS prompted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to launch the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), which was critiqued as a compromise between the OPS and NPS.[50] The UPS offers government employees the choice to switch from the NPS to the UPS, though the nuances of implementation are not yet final. Like the NPS, the UPS requires employees to contribute 10 percent of their salary to a pension corpus. However, it increases the government’s contribution from 14 percent to 18.5 percent.[51] Like the OPS, the UPS guarantees a certain percentage of an employee’s last drawn salary as a monthly pension, regardless of whether the accumulated corpus at retirement can sustain these payments.[52] This shortfall may strain government budgets to fulfil pension liabilities—precisely the issue that the NPS sought to mitigate.
Notably, the current partisan support for reverting to the OPS sharply contrasts with the bipartisan unity that enabled the transition from the OPS to the NPS in 2004. At the time, both major political alliances acknowledged that the OPS posed an unsustainable burden on India’s public finances and agreed on the need for its discontinuation. The transition was initiated by the NDA government in late 2003 and implemented by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in 2004.[53]
Similar partisan politics often influence decisions on retirement ages at the state level. In Kerala, the government’s proposal to raise the retirement age in most public-sector undertakings from 56/58 years to 60 years sparked opposition threats of state-wide protests, labelling the move a “betrayal of the youth”.[54] Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, when the retirement age for government employees was raised to 62, the opposition leader criticised the decision, suggesting that the government should instead provide an allowance of INR 2,000 to educated but unemployed youth in the state.[55]
These debates highlight another shortcoming in India’s discourse on ageing: the disproportionate focus on the needs of a small subset of older adults who are or have been government employees. While the transition from the OPS to NPS was a rare instance of forward-thinking policymaking, its impact was limited to this sub-demographic. Governments prioritise such issues due to their direct and significant implications for public finances, while opposition parties exploit any fallout for electoral gains. Consequently, the broader needs of most older adults in India remain neglected. Older adults within the BPL bracket may receive minimal financial or in-kind support through various schemes, but those outside the BPL criteria and without a history of government employment are left to fend for themselves. Despite the need for state support, this group faces the greatest neglect. This is most evident in the stagnation of two critical measures—the adoption of a new policy on ageing and amendments to the MWPSC Act—both of which have not proceeded beyond policy discussions.
Furthermore, political parties’ portrayal of increased retirement ages as a “betrayal of youth” highlights their focus on appealing to India’s youth population, which represents a large portion of the electorate. Though governments must provide adequate educational and employment opportunities for young people, these conversations have been framed as a zero-sum game, positioning the needs of older adults against those of the youth because of limited budgets, government jobs, and political bandwidth. Political parties perceive greater electoral gain in prioritising the needs of India’s youth, whether due to their larger voting base or the perceived economic potential they hold.
The 2024 national election manifestos of both major political parties reflected this approach. While the party currently heading the NDA coalition included a section on older adults, it was half the length of the section dedicated to the youth. Although neither section outlined concrete plans, the youth-focused section emphasised education, employment, and entrepreneurship, while the older adults’ section highlighted the need for inclusive physical and digital infrastructure, improved service delivery, and support for religious pilgrimages.[56]
The manifesto of the principal opposition party mentioned older adults even more briefly but included two specific provisions: raising the monthly IGNOAPS pension to INR 1,000 and reviewing the MWPSC Act.[57] However, it made detailed commitments to the country’s youth, focusing on employment and skill development through apprenticeship schemes, filling government job vacancies, funding entrepreneurship, writing off student loans, and improving the affordability and quality of education, among others.[58]
Even in states where the demographic transition is being acknowledged, policymakers and politicians have focused on expanding the youth base rather than addressing the challenges of an ageing population. For instance, in Sikkim, which has the lowest fertility rate in the country at 1.1, the state government has incentivised government employees to have more children by providing higher salary increments, free childcare for women with three children, extended maternity and paternity leaves, and financial support for in-vitro fertilisation treatment.[59],[60] Ahead of the 2024 state elections, Sikkim also considered creating a fixed deposit of INR 10,800 for each newborn, redeemable when the child turns 18.[61] Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, with a total fertility rate of 1.5,[62] the Legislative Assembly repealed a law preventing individuals with more than two children from contesting local elections. The state’s chief minister even proposed drafting new legislation that would allow only those with more than two children to contest elections.[63]
The most common approach that state governments adopt to address the needs of the majority of older adults is through pension schemes, often targeting those who meet certain criteria, such as income thresholds, as seen in the IGNOAPS. Recently, the government of Delhi announced a monthly pension of INR 2,000 for adults aged of 60-69 years and INR 2,500 for those above 70 years, provided their annual family income is below INR 1 lakh. A search on the Government of India’s “myScheme” portal shows that several other state governments have similar schemes, and some also allocate funds for old-age homes in accordance with the directives of the 2007 MWPSC Act.[64] There are other isolated instances of policymaking at the state level, such as Kerala’s draft Senior Citizens Bill 2023,[65] though no state appears to be proactive in addressing demographic ageing and its impact on older adults.
Thus, the government has failed to fully implement its declared ‘whole-of-society’ approach in two ways. First, state-centric schemes and policies do not encourage broader societal engagement in supporting older adults. Second, the disproportionate policy focus on the small group of government pensioners instead of designing inclusive policies for all older adults, overlooks the needs of large swathes of the older population in society.
Conclusion
The government must take immediate and decisive action to address the shortcomings in care for its older population. Simply reiterating previous policies, as seen with the 2011 draft National Policy for Senior Citizens, which mirrored the 1999 policy, will not suffice. Future schemes for older adults must be designed with a focus on effective implementation, drawing lessons from past shortcomings.
This pragmatic approach must extend to clearly assigning responsibility for executing all policy and scheme prescriptions. As demonstrated in current schemes, the limited financial and administrative capacity of state-centric solutions is ineffective. Therefore, the government should involve families, civil society organisations, and the private sector as active participants in a whole-of-society approach, ensuring a baseline of dignified living for older adults. Crucially, individuals must also be incentivised to prepare for their later years, and their productive potential should be maximised for as long as possible.
The insights generated from the 2017 LASI, which provided detailed data on financial, social, health, and other essential indicators of older adults, offer a crucial foundation for policymakers. With a solid understanding of the needs and challenges facing this demographic, policymakers would be better placed to guide meaningful reform. Given the worsening old-age dependency ratios in India, the urgency for such reform cannot be overstated. Policymakers must act quickly before older adults constitute a sizable electorate like India’s youth do now. While demographic changes may reshape political and policy priorities, as seen in countries further along their demographic journeys,[66] it may soon become too late to implement the necessary changes to ensure a dignified life for older adults in India.
Endnotes
[1] Henry H. McVey et al., India: Unlocking the Demographic Dividend, New York City, Kolberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP, November 2012.
[2] Knowledge at Wharton, “Former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani: ‘We Are on the Razor’s Edge’,” July 2009.
[3] Gireesh C. Prasad, “India’s Demographic Dividend Will Eventually Dwindle: ADB,” Livemint, May 2, 2024,https://www.livemint.com/economy/ageing-population-a-structural-challenge-for-asia-india-s-demographic-dividend-to-dwindle-adb-11714637750508.html
[4] The Hindu Bureau, “South Asia, India Risk Squandering Demographic Dividend: World Bank,” The Hindu, April 2, 2024, https://www.thehindu.com/incoming/south-asia-india-risk-squandering-demographic-dividend-world-bank/article68021079.ece
[5] Bindu S. Perappadan, “Fertility Falls, Obesity Goes Up in India, Says National Family Health Survey,” The Hindu, 6 May, 2022, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/fertility-falls-obesity-goes-up-in-india-says-national-family-health-survey/article65387405.ece
[6] International Institute for Population Sciences & United Nations Population Fund, India Ageing Report 2023, Caring for Our Elders: Institutional Responses, New Delhi, United Nations Population Fund, 2023.
[7] Srijan Rai and Aparajita Bharti, “India Urgently Needs a New Policy for the Elderly,” Livemint, July 24, 2023, https://www.livemint.com/opinion/first-person/india-urgently-needs-a-new-policy-for-the-elderly-11690176975727.html
[8] National Policy for Older Persons Year 1999, New Delhi, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 1999
[9] National Policy for Senior Citizens 2011, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, 2011, https://socialjustice.gov.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/dnpsc.pdf
[10] Joyita Ghose, Standing Committee Report Summary: Implementation of Schemes for the Welfare of Senior Citizens, New Delhi, PRS Legislative Research, February 2014.
[11] Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1794766
[12]Smridhi Uppal, “Can the Draft Policy 2020 Help Build a Strong Senior Care Ecosystem in India?,” Healthword.com, August 8, 2020, https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/can-the-draft-policy-2020-help-build-a-strong-senior-care-ecosystem-in-india-/77421671
[13] “About Us – National Social Assistance Programme,” Ministry of Rural Development. https://nsap.nic.in/circular.do?method=aboutus
[14] “About Us – National Social Assistance Programme”
[15] Gautam Bhardwaj and Surendra A. Dave, “Towards Estimating India’s Implicit Pension Debt on Account of Civil Service Employees,” Pinbox Solutions,https://www.pinboxsolutions.com/wp-content/themes/PinBox-V1.1/pdf/papers/BhardwajDave2005_ipd_2.pdf
[16] The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, PRS Legislative Research,https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-maintenance-and-welfare-of-parents-and-senior-citizens-bill-2007
[17] “Detailed Brief of NPHCE,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Detailed%20Breif%20of%20NPHCE.pdf
[18] “Atal Pension Yojana,” National Portal of India, https://www.india.gov.in/spotlight/atal-pension-yojana
[19] “Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana,” Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India, https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Detailed%20Breif%20of%20NPHCE.pdf
[20] Ministry of Finance, https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/files/budget_speech.pdf
[21] Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1844991
[22] Aanchal Magazine, “Explained: In Unified Pension Scheme, Extra Burden on Govt but no Pushing Back on Reforms,” Indian Express, August 26, 2024.https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/in-ups-extra-burden-but-no-pushing-back-of-the-reform-needle-9531518/
[23] “India Ageing Report 2023, Caring for Our Elders: Institutional Responses”
[24] International Institution for Population Sciences (IIPS), National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE), MoHFW, Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), & the University of Southern California (USC), Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report, International Institute for Population Sciences, 2020.
[25] “India Ageing Report 2023, Caring for Our Elders: Institutional Responses”
[26] Matt Flynn, “Longevity Dividend: How an Ageing Population can Actually Help the Economy,” Scroll.in, September 1, 2018, https://scroll.in/article/892555/longevity-dividend-how-an-ageing-population-can-actually-help-the-economy
[27] Neetu C. Sharma, “Why is Digital Literacy Important for the Elderly?,” Livemint, September 6, 2019, https://www.livemint.com/education/news/why-is-digital-literacy-important-for-elderly-1568620357404.html
[28] Rukmini S., “In India, Who Speaks English and Where?,” Livemint, May 14, 2019, https://www.livemint.com/news/india/in-india-who-speaks-in-english-and-where-1557814101428.html
[29] SACRED – An Electronic Employment Exchange for Senior Citizens, “Home Page”
[30] SACRED – An Electronic Employment Exchange for Senior Citizens, “Jobs Available”
[31] National Policy for Older Persons Year 1999, New Delhi, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 1999.
[32] “Ageing Europe – Statistics on Population Developments,” Eurostat, July 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Ageing_Europe_-_statistics_on_population_developments#Older_people_.E2.80.94_increasingly_old_and_with_growing_dependency
[33] Ajay Shah, “A Sustainable and Scalable Approach in Indian Pension Reform,” Ministry of Finance, December 5, 2005.
[34] “Towards Estimating India’s Implicit Pension Debt on Account of Civil Service Employees”
[35] Renuka Sane and Susan Thomas, “The Way Forward for India’s Pension System,” Finance Research Group, July 2014.
[36] Karthik Muralidharan, Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance, (New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2024), pp. 169.
[37] “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007,” PRS Legislative Research, https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-maintenance-and-welfare-of-parents-and-senior-citizens-bill-2007
[38] Pitam Singh et al., Summary Report on Evaluation Study of ‘RashtriyaVayoshri Yojana (RVY), National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development, May 2020.
[39] “Summary Report on Evaluation Study of ‘RashtriyaVayoshri Yojana (RVY)”
[40] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[41] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[42] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[43] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[44] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[45] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[46] “Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1, 2017-18, India Report”
[47] Renuka Sane, “States Going Back to the Old Pension Scheme will Hurt India. Here’s what 8th Pay Commission Can Do,” The Print, September 20, 2023, https://theprint.in/opinion/states-going-back-to-old-pension-scheme-will-hurt-india-heres-what-8th-pay-commission-can-do/1768779/
[48]“ Thousands of Govt Employees Protest at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi Demanding Restoration of Old Pension Scheme,” The Hindu, October 2, 2023, https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/thousands-of-govt-employees-protest-at-ramlila-maidan-in-delhi-demanding-restoration-of-old-pension-scheme/article67370332.ece
[49] “Nyay Patra,” Indian National Congress, 2024, https://manifesto.inc.in/assets/Congress-Manifesto-English-2024-Dyoxp_4E.pdf
[50] Aanchal Magazine, “Explained: In Unified Pension Scheme, Extra Burden on Govt but no Pushing Back on Reforms”
[51] Aanchal Magazine, “Explained: In Unified Pension Scheme, Extra Burden on Govt but no Pushing Back on Reforms”
[52] Renuka Sane, “Govt’s New Unified Pension Scheme Walks Back on Important Reforms. It’s Disappointing,” The Print, August 28, 2024,https://theprint.in/opinion/centres-new-unified-pension-scheme-walks-back-on-important-reforms-its-disappointing/2240617/
[53] “A Sustainable and Scalable Approach in Indian Pension Reform”
[54] “After Opposition Protest, Kerala Govt Freezes Decision on Retirement Age of PSU Employees,” The Indian Express, November 3, 2022, https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/after-opposition-protest-kerala-govt-freezes-decision-retirement-age-of-psu-employees-8244367/
[55] PTI, “Retirement Age of Madhya Pradesh Govt Employees Raised to 62 Years,” Indian Express, March 30, 2018, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/retirement-age-of-madhya-pradesh-govt-employees-raised-to-62-years-5117494/
[56] “Modi Ki Guarantee,” Bharatiya Janata Party, 2024, https://www.bjp.org/bjp-manifesto-2024
[57] “Nyay Patra”
[58] “Nyay Patra”
[59] PTI, “Sikkim Govt to Give Advance & Additional Increments to Employees Having Two or More Children,” The Hindu, May 12, 2023, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/sikkim-govt-to-give-advance-additional-increments-to-employees-having-two-or-more-children/article66842145.ece
[60] Esha Roy, “Increments, Free Childcare Help: Sikkim Bid to Boost Fertility Rate,” Indian Express, January 22, 2023, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/increments-free-childcare-help-sikkim-bid-to-boost-fertility-rate-8396556/
[61] PTI, “Sikkim Govt to Create Fixed Deposits of Rs 10,800 in Name of Newborns,” The Print, February 26, 2024, https://theprint.in/india/sikkim-govt-to-create-fixed-deposits-of-rs-10800-in-name-of-newborns/1979365/
[62] Soutik Biswas, “Why a Nation of 1.45 Billion Wants More Children,” BBC, December 16, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9088men9xo
[63] Sreenivas Janyala, “‘Have More Children for the Benefit of the Nation’: Chandrababu Naidu Plans Legislation to Boost Young Population in Andhra,” Indian Express, October 21, 2024, https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/hyderabad/chandrababu-naidu-legislation-young-population-andhra-pradesh-9629750/
[64] myScheme, “Search Schemes,” https://www.myscheme.gov.in/search?tag=Old%20Age
[65] The Kerala Senior Citizens’ Bill, 2023, Thiruvananthapuram, Government of Kerala, 2023, http://www.lawreformscommission.kerala.gov.in/images/bills/new-bills/SENIOR_CITIZENS_COMMISSION_BILL-23.pdf
[66] Harald Wilkoszewski, Elke Loichinger, and Patrick I. Dick, Turning the Tables, Turning the Tables: Policy and Politics in an Age of Ageing, Population Europe, 2016,https://population-europe.eu/research/policy-insights/turning-tables-policy-and-politics-age-ageing
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