INDIA: Ripe Examples of Humanity

KOLKATA (Statesman News Service), October 1, 2003: Is ageing a burden or should it be thought of as a resource for the future generation? The issue was discussed at length this evening during an interactive session with writer and documentary filmmaker Jeremy Seabrook on “Meeting the Challenge of Ageing Populations”. The author is a columnist with The Statesman. The discussion, held at Oxford Bookstore Gallery, marked the launch of his latest book A World Growing Old. It is slated to be released by Verso shortly. “I don’t want to problematise the question of an ageing population. This is a global problem, and will become graver in developing countries in the years to come. There would be 177 million elderly people in India in the next 20 years,” the Britain-based author said. By 2040, half of Germany’s population will be old, while 400 million Chinese will find themselves in that category by 2050. “The young are the focus of all publicity... while the society is busy marginalising the elderly,” he said. “Traditional wisdom seems to have decayed and fallen to disuse. The present generation’s preoccupation with itself has left the senior citizens ghettoised,” he said.