Prashanth Reddy highlights the shift from emergency-led care to prevention and coordinated support in elder care delivery in India
India’s healthcare conversations around ageing often begin only when something goes wrong. A hospital admission, a fall at home, a sudden medical complication, or the urgent need for caregiving usually triggers attention to elder care. But demographic realities suggest that this approach may no longer be enough.
India today has more than 150 million people above the age of 60, and this number is expected to grow to over 340 million by 2050, according to estimates from the United Nations Population Division. As life expectancy increases and families become more geographically dispersed, elder care is gradually moving beyond a family responsibility to become an important healthcare delivery question.