Ageing and Human Development: A Case Study of Rural India

Nihar R. Mishra, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

In this paper an attempt has been made to study the living arrangements of the elderly in rural Orissa. Also an attempt has been made to study the gender differential in state of physical and mental health and health-seeking behaviour among elderly. This paper mainly attempts to understand the utilization of human resources among the elderly in rural Orissa. Human development has two sides, namely the supply side which focuses on improvement in skill and demand side where the focus is on utilization of these skills. Here the demand aspects among the elderly will be viewed i.e. utilization and willingness to participate in productive work. For the present study primary data has been collected from the Ganjam district of Orissa. In order to meet the requirements of the growing aged population the state has to create necessary infrastructures such as old age homes, health care facilities etc.