Productive aging in India

With its sociocultural, institutional, and demographic contexts, India offers a unique opportunity to study the dynamics and experiences of aging, especially as it is poised to have a large increase in the number of persons aged 60 and above in the next half a century. In this paper, we focus on the...

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Main Authors: Visaria, Abhijit, Dommaraju, Premchand
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80912
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49064
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author Visaria, Abhijit
Dommaraju, Premchand
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Visaria, Abhijit
Dommaraju, Premchand
author_sort Visaria, Abhijit
collection NTU
description With its sociocultural, institutional, and demographic contexts, India offers a unique opportunity to study the dynamics and experiences of aging, especially as it is poised to have a large increase in the number of persons aged 60 and above in the next half a century. In this paper, we focus on the concept of productive aging that emphasizes the active participation of older persons in society. We examine the correlates of productive aging in India, drawing on data from the Building Knowledge Base on Population Aging (BKPAI) survey of 9852 men and women aged 60 years and above in seven states of India in 2011. The productive activities that we examine pertain to four domains: work, contribution to household financial matters, grandparenting, and social engagement. The findings highlight the importance of gender, family structure, and socio-economic status in these different aspects of productive aging. Importantly, the findings show that the effect of the correlates is not the same across the different measures of productive aging. We find that women are less likely than men to engage in all productive activities except for grandparenting, and that living with children and adverse health reduce the likelihood of current employment or financial contributions, but not of social engagement or grandparenting. Greater wealth at older ages reduces the likelihood of employment but increases the likelihood of social engagement and ties. The study contributes to the understanding of opportunities and constraints of productive aging in India and has implications for intergenerational relationships, support and dependencies in old age.
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spelling ntu-10356/809122021-02-08T07:39:50Z Productive aging in India Visaria, Abhijit Dommaraju, Premchand School of Social Sciences Productive Aging India Social sciences::Sociology With its sociocultural, institutional, and demographic contexts, India offers a unique opportunity to study the dynamics and experiences of aging, especially as it is poised to have a large increase in the number of persons aged 60 and above in the next half a century. In this paper, we focus on the concept of productive aging that emphasizes the active participation of older persons in society. We examine the correlates of productive aging in India, drawing on data from the Building Knowledge Base on Population Aging (BKPAI) survey of 9852 men and women aged 60 years and above in seven states of India in 2011. The productive activities that we examine pertain to four domains: work, contribution to household financial matters, grandparenting, and social engagement. The findings highlight the importance of gender, family structure, and socio-economic status in these different aspects of productive aging. Importantly, the findings show that the effect of the correlates is not the same across the different measures of productive aging. We find that women are less likely than men to engage in all productive activities except for grandparenting, and that living with children and adverse health reduce the likelihood of current employment or financial contributions, but not of social engagement or grandparenting. Greater wealth at older ages reduces the likelihood of employment but increases the likelihood of social engagement and ties. The study contributes to the understanding of opportunities and constraints of productive aging in India and has implications for intergenerational relationships, support and dependencies in old age. Accepted version 2019-07-02T01:36:01Z 2019-12-06T14:17:15Z 2019-07-02T01:36:01Z 2019-12-06T14:17:15Z 2019 2019 Journal Article Visaria, A., & Dommaraju, P. (2019). Productive aging in India. Social Science & Medicine, 229, 14-21. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.029 0277-9536 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80912 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49064 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.029 210257 229 14 21 210257 en Social Science & Medicine © 2019 Elsevier. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Social Science & Medicine and is made available with permission of Elsevier. 25 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle Productive Aging
India
Social sciences::Sociology
Visaria, Abhijit
Dommaraju, Premchand
Productive aging in India
title Productive aging in India
title_full Productive aging in India
title_fullStr Productive aging in India
title_full_unstemmed Productive aging in India
title_short Productive aging in India
title_sort productive aging in india
topic Productive Aging
India
Social sciences::Sociology
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80912
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49064
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