The Elderly in Rural Orissa-Alone in Distress

Alone in Distress AS a result of rapid decline in fertility and mortality, many of the developing countries over the past three decades have witnessed substantial increase in the number and proportion of their elderly population. However, many of the high fertility countries are still demographically young. Although the proportion of elderly in these countries is low, the size of the elderly population is undoubtedly alarming in some of these countries such as India. The estimated elderly population (60 years or over) of India in 1991 is 55 million, representing 6.54 per cent of the total population. It is projected that elderly population would increase to 76 million by the year 2001, representing 7,63 per cent of the total population (Bose 1994; Gokhale et al 1994]. In fact, the number of elderly in India is currently larger than the total population of many countries.