The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index 2018 report, which compares retirement systems in 34 nations across the world, ranked India at the 33rd position, stating that the country's system had major weaknesses and omissions that needed to be addressed. The report comes at a time when there is increasing awareness of the rising number of elderly in the country and the challenges posed before the government and civil society.
According to a United Nations Population Fund report in 2017, the number of elderly (aged 60 and above), which crossed 100 million as of 2011, will likely touch 300 million by 2050. Government data showed that the decadal growth in the elderly population was twice that of the total population between the years 2001 and 2011.
Official statistics also show that Kerala has the highest proportion of elderly people in the population (12.6 per cent), followed by Goa (11.2 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (10.4 per cent). Kerala also ranked second in pension as a percentage of revenue expenditure for 2014-15 (budgeted estimate), behind Himachal Pradesh.
The number of beneficiaries under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) was 3.46 crore in 2018-19, compared with 2.29 crore in 2014-15.
COMMents
COMMents
SHARE