How Technology Can Help For Elder Care In India?

There is a dire need for tech-enabled solutions for eldercare in India. Primarily, there are two reasons for this – The rising senior citizen population and increasing urban nuclear families. A possibly revolutionary change which the private companies have brought in is the use of technology at each step in their programmes to support elder care in the country.

- Prashanth Reddy

Population ageing is a growing problem across the globe, and India is no exception. Although the Indian demographic is skewed towards young people—which is a good thing— in the short term, the country will have to deal with a burgeoning elderly population in the decades to come. This is a concern that needs to be addressed now, as building systems and environments for an entire demographic takes time. While the population as a whole is set to grow by around 40 per cent in the 2006-2050 period, the elderly population will have grown by 7 times as much, in the same period. In fact, due to increasing life expectancy, the increase in the population of people over 80 years of age will be 700 per cent. With higher welfare of the population in general, the senior population has vastly different expectations and requirements than even a couple decades ago, as they are used to a certain level of comfort and solace. When seniors have the assistance and support of a variety of healthcare services and wellness professionals, they feel a greater sense of belonging and involvement in society, as opposed