Preparing for Old Age : Social security for the aged.

Preparing for Old Age.

I have today, a few points based on an article {Editorial by BUSINESSLINE dated 27Sept} on the ‘Social security issues of the aged’.

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Recent efforts to popularize the Reverse Mortgage Loans by NHB (National Housing Bank) in the big cities are noteworthy. But they are not sufficient to address the economic needs of the elderly. RMLs provide an existence to the elderly who possess a house, but do not have a regular income to sustain themselves.

Most of India’s 4.7 million aged people (7.5% of the population in 2005) struggle to survive. This number is expected to rise to 141 million (or 10.2 % of population) by 2020. this situation could be worse, if a safety network is not in place.

Social security has remained the preserve of a few far too long. This should change. It is necessary to go beyond RMLs. A study be an Insurance company points out that only 24% of the households in our country have life insurance cover; the coverage of health and other forms are even lower. To extend life insurance, health insurance, old-age security and maternity benefits to the unorganized sector, pension reforms are a must and cannot be put off any longer.

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Is our Government doing its best (or at least something) for this ? Ofcourse they did some good to the Government employee pensioners recently. But think of those 422 million workers who are not covered under any of these kind of social security measures.

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