Elderly women need focussed interventions

October 1 is observed as World Elder Day, with all its attendant focus on the needs of older people and their potential. It is a day that comes by only to be forgotten quickly and the spotlight moves back onto the potential India's younger demographic holds. In the cohort of older persons, women are most at a disadvantage.

- Lalita Panicker

October 1 is observed as World Elder Day, with all its attendant focus on the needs of older people and their potential. It is a day that comes by only to be forgotten quickly and the spotlight moves back onto the potential India's younger demographic holds. In the cohort of older persons, women are most at a disadvantage. Older women have far less agency than their younger counterparts, especially in rural areas, and many of them face isolation, poverty, ill-health, lack of income and lack of education.

In a technology-driven world, elderly women are at a huge disadvantage. Very few are financially or digitally literate, shut out of the job market and also out of accessing schemes or beneficial information. Lack of access to finances and social safety nets leave them vulnerable to abuse by their caregivers. There are very few State support structures. Many studies suggest that older women are treated as unpaid caregivers to the family's children and made to do other chores.