Condition of the Aged in National Capital Territory of Delhi

Bhaswati Das

Abstract A population is called ageing when the proportion of aged 60 or 65 years is increasing in total population. This is a dynamics of decline in fertility and mortality which may be modified by migration of young population in a specific geographical region. To understand the condition of the aged, the study relied on different official secondary data sources. National Capital Territory of Delhi is the capital of India and while coping with globalization, the city has experienced large amount of growth in creation of economic opportunities which has attracted a large number of young male migrants. It has provided the region a relatively young age structure with lesser proportion of aged population than the country’s average. Elderly sex ratio also, which otherwise favours females is favouring males in this region. Commensurating with previous studies it is observed that even in the capital city, women headship is low when they are in the union and they get headship of the household with increase in age and mostly when they are not in the union. Living arrangement is distressing where nearly 2 % of the households are exclusively all-aged households irrespective of the number of persons in the household. Little less than half (46 %) of the male elderly in 60-69 age group are working as main worker, which is extremely high. This has reduced the number of economically dependents in Delhi. However, it is important to mention that proportion of pensioner is also quite higher in Delhi than country as a whole. High work participation may be linked with the lesser morbidity of the Delhi’s elderly where both the incidence and rate of hospitalization are substantially low. However, surveys have observed that crime against the elderly is much higher in Delhi than it is in many other urban centres in India. Delhi Government has shown its concern in

B. Das (*)

Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India e-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

© Springer India 2017

S.S. Acharya et al. (eds.), Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi: Issues of Land, Livelihoods and Health, DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-3583-5_21

this and taken initiative to address the same. However, a comprehensive database focusing on elderly is required for Delhi as it is experiencing fast change.

Keywords Elderly in Delhi • Ageing process • Living arrangement • Health condition • Working elderly