As youth protests dominate India, Kerala state is grappling with an ageing problem

NEW DELHI – India’s biggest student protests in years last week highlighted the growing frustrations of the country’s hundreds of millions of young people.But in one state in southern India, authorities are confronting a very different challenge: caring for a rapidly ageing population.Kerala, known for its lush green hills and backwaters, has the highest share of older residents among Indian states following decades of low birth rates, rising life expectancy and large-scale migration.More than one in five of its residents, or 20.7 per cent of its population, are aged 60 or older, compared with an average of 12.9 per cent for the whole of India, according to the National Family Health Survey. The state’s total fertility rate stands at 1.3 children per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1 and the national average of 1.9, according to official data.Kerala is widely seen as India’s demographic bellwether.The state is getting old at a time when India’s traditional system of caring for older people is beginning to break down.Looking after ageing parents had long been the responsibility of children and extended families.But the growing migration of Indians to other states and abroad means that many people now entering their 60s and beyond are having to take care of themselves.In Kerala, in particular, generations of residents have left to work in the Middle East and the West, leaving the state to look for new ways to care for its ageing population.Elderly welfareThe newly elected government in Kerala has made this demographic challenge a key policy priority.After taking office in May, one of the first steps Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan took was to create a dedicated department to focus on the elderly, a first in the country.“We want to make the major portion of the senior citizens constructive and creative,” Satheesan said in a recent interview from his offices in Cliff House in Thiruvananthapuram, the chief minister’s official residence in the state capital.“They should contribute to the economy and to the society and to the state.”The Department of Elderly Welfare will focus on improving geriatric healthcare and encouraging entrepreneurship among older people, according to the state’s latest budget document.As part of the plan, the government will expand caregiver training at nursing colleges and hospitals, build dedicated day-care centers, parks and fitness centers for the elderly, and conduct a statewide survey of senior citizens to help shape future policy.Satheesan said several other states have already sought details of Kerala’s approach, which he hopes will become “a model legislation for the entire country.”He expects nearly four in 10 Keralites to be aged 60 or older by 2036, making the state a blueprint for policies that the rest of India may eventually need.Labour marketFor decades, the country has been defined by the promise of its youthful population, attracting global companies with abundant labour and a growing consumer market.But as fertility rates fall across several states, Kerala’s experiment could offer an early glimpse of how the world’s most populous nation responds to one of its biggest demographic shifts.India’s elderly population is projected to reach about 230 million by 2036, roughly equivalent to Brazil’s current population, according to government data. “Kerala is the first state to confront many of the realities that the rest of India will eventually face,” said Poonam Munjal, a professor at National Council of Applied Economic Research, a New Delhi-based think tank.“If it succeeds in building institutions that help older people live healthier and more independent lives, other states will have something to look up to.”Kerala has studied ageing models in Japan and Europe, Satheesan said, but any solution would have to reflect India’s economic realities.The state plans to encourage private investment in care homes and hospitals while preparing what he described as India’s first law guaranteeing elder care.The proposal would make caring for older people a responsibility of the state, rather than leaving it solely to families.Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Group is among the companies betting on Kerala’s ageing population.It has partnered with local developer Asset Homes to build four retirement communities across Kochi, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram through its India platform, Serene Communities.“For a long time, India wasn’t ready for organized senior living,” said Rajagopal G., director and group CEO of Serene Communities. “Kerala is different. The demographic shift has already happened here.”Tara Mohan, a 75-year-old retired educator and researcher, moved with her husband to a senior living community in Thiruvananthapuram after decades of teaching and research in India and abroad.Their daughter is settled in Argentina, and both have begun facing age-related health challenges.“When we moved here, it felt like a big decision. Today, I see retirement communities coming up everywhere, and more people joining ours every month,” Mohan said. “It’s becoming the way forward.” BLOOMBERG