India is the world's largest democracy and second most populous country with nearly 1.4 billion people. With reduced birth rates and increasing lifespans, it had nearly 104 million ‘senior citizens' in 2011, expected to grow to 300 million by 2050. Providing care for the elderly in India is a growing public and private concern. Filial piety is embedded in culture and long-term care for parents and the elderly is expected from children. However, over the last five decades there have been rapid changes in socioeconomic patterns with increasing mobility for work and rise of nuclear households. Despite this, elder care is still largely underdeveloped, with lack of formal training in geriatric care and geriatric care curriculum in medical education. Australia has a highly evolved elderly care system with care services that includes retirement villages, home care, residential care, and flexible care. These are provided by subsidization from the government and private user pay system. Australia is well poised to provide aged care expertise and services and shape elderly care in India.
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Aims and Objectives
The aim of this chapter is to examine demand and supply of elderly care in India and opportunities for Australian aged care services in India. It begins by detailing the aged care sector in India including insights into Indian culture and possible impacts on services’ provisions. This will be followed by description of this sector in Australia and its potential contribution to India’s market.
Specific research questions are:
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What is the profile (prevalence, demography, socioeconomic status, religious and cultural status) of aged populations in India?
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How are elderly currently cared for in India?
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What factors are driving the demand for elderly care services in India?
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What legislation, regulation and policy frameworks exist for elderly care in India?
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What is the supply of aged care services in India?
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What are unique challenges and opportunities for aged care services in India?
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What are the supply and service provision of aged care in Australia?
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What opportunities are there for providers of Australian aged care service in supporting this sector in India?
Background
Ageing is a global phenomenon, with an unprecedented growth in the number of persons aged over 65 years of age, attributed to increasing lifespans and reduced birth-rates. World over in 2019, 9% of people or 703 million were over 65 years of age, and projections indicate that this number will jump to 1.5 billion by 2050 (United Nations, 2019). India is no exception, with 87 million ‘senior citizens’ (over 60 years of age) in 2011, and an expected growth to 300 million by 2050 (United Nations Population Fund, 2017).
Providing care for the elderly in India is a growing public and private concern. Filial piety is embedded in Indian culture and long-term care for parents and the elderly is expected from children – particularly from sons alone, or sons and their spouses (Kadoya & Khan, 2017). However, over the last five decades, there have been rapid changes in socio-economic patterns in India. In particular, increasing mobility for work, and the rise of more nuclear households (Sathyanarayana, Kumar, & James, 2014), have affected the traditional social and cultural norms of elder care in the family, posing risks to emotional, physical and financial security (United Nations Population Fund, 2017). Despite the dire need, elder care in India is still largely underdeveloped, with lack of formal training in geriatric care and lack of specialised geriatric care curriculum in medical education (United Nations Population Fund, 2017).
India and Australia have a strong bilateral partnership. India is Australia's fifth largest export market and eighth largest trading partner overall (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2019). With its extraordinary scale, India is a market that offers significant growth opportunities for Australian business (Varghese, 2018). Australia has a highly evolved elderly care system, with a diversity of formal care services of home care, residential care and flexible care subsidised and regulated by the government (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019). In addition, this is complemented with private sector’s provision of aged care, including retirement villages and community supports (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Further, the country has well developed education and training programs, from vocational to specialist levels, in aged and geriatric care (Ryan et al., 2018). Australia is well poised to provide aged care expertise and services and shape elderly care in India.