Dr Prakash Tyagi
The theme for International Day for Older Persons (IDOP), October 1, 2021 is digital equity for all ages.
Demographic transition is rapid and evident. All over the world, the population proportion of older people is rising. Supported by advances in medical sciences and technologies, an extended life expectancy is great news but comes with social and economic challenges and with serious public health implications.
Between now and 2050, the global numbers of people above 60 years of age will rise from about 900 million to over 2 billion, from about 12% to about 22% of the global population. For the first time in the history, the number of older people above 60 will be higher than younger people under 15. The numbers of people above 60 years are already higher than children younger than 5. A large number of these older people live in Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and many are based in rural and remote areas, amid poverty and scarcely available health facilities. The pandemic has further widened the inequities when it comes to availability of healthcare for older people.
International Day for Older Persons
In India too, the population projections foresee a rapid rise in senior citizens’ numbers and the transition has been taking place at a much rapid pace. It is estimated that the 104 million-population of older people from the 2011 national census will be tripled by 2050. An interesting comparison suggests that while for a county like France, it took about 150 years for the aged population proportion to rise from 10% to 20%, a similar rise in India would occur much quicker, in about 20 years. Over two thirds of India’s older people live in rural areas where healthcare services are scarcely available.
Pre-existing inequities in access to healthcare for older people are growing rapidly and widely as the COVID pandemic continues its spread across the world. These inequities are more stark in older women, in older people with disabilities and in older people living in remote and rural areas.
The current issues surrounding inequities, aggravated further by the current COVID crisis, are at multiple levels and are mainly caused by attitudinal and behavioral reasons such as ageism and stigma, as well as by physical factors mainly remoteness of rural population settlements and with limited outreach of services in those areas. As the battle against corona virus continues, the digital divide across the population, particularly impacting older people, is proving to be a critical issue.
The UN International Day for Older Persons (IDOP) is being observed every year for over 30 years after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in this context on 14th December, 1990. The IDOP is observed around the world to raise awareness on population ageing and on related public health priorities and to build and strengthen solidarity on actions towards healthy ageing.
It is well understood that the digital technologies been playing a crucial role in health programmes all over the world, and particularly in particularly managing the COVID-19 pandemic. However, age has been a major barrier in access and use of digital technology particularly impacting older people living in remote and rural areas, in poverty and literacy. The digital divide is isolating older people and leaving them behind on the progress of health and well being programmes. Hence, IDOP 2021, with its theme, emphasizes on the need of access and on meaningful participation of older people in digital world.
IDOP 2021 is also the first important event under the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing which was endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 14th December 2020 through a resolution, spanning 2021 to 2030. The decade of healthy ageing is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is a global collaboration that will bring together Governments, civil society, international agencies, professionals, academia, the media, and the private sector, and will continue its interventions in alignment with the last 10 years of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development.
To foster healthy ageing and to improve the lives of older people, the decade of healthy ageing will focus on 4 action areas. The first is to create and strengthen age friendly environments by removing physical and social barriers and by converting environments into better places to live and to age. The second is to combat ageism. The third is to provide integrated care. All older people should have non-discriminatory access to integrated care which should include, but is not limited to, prevention, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative, and “end of life” care. The fourth is to support long-term care.
Moving forward, it may be worthwhile to focus on key needs in the context of health ageing. The first need is to design a comprehensive communication mechanism and to deliver the decade of healthy ageing messages to all stakeholders, most importantly to older people themselves. A second key need is to develop a strategy for partnerships which are going to be crucial in engagement of key groups, delivery of services and for research and advocacy. Civil Society, Government agencies and private sector are three important constituents of the partnerships spectrum, and a clear plan for their engagement must be developed at both macro and micro levels. A third need would be to create some form of guiding groups at national levels (and at provincial or sub-national levels too in the case of larger countries) comprising representatives from different sectors ensuring dynamic planning, implementation and monitoring of actions.
COVID-19 related challenges are already an obstacle and will continue to hamper the progress probably for long in future. Mitigation strategies will have to be worked out in advance in the context of community education and delivery of care services using digital education, telemedicine and with use of COVID guidelines, keeping the local context and situation in view. Ensuring digital equity for older people will need to be a key priority.
Let this IDOP be an important reminder of digital inequities and its impact on public health particularly on old people’s health. Ensuring digital equity for older people will need to be a key priority in the future of healthy ageing interventions.
(The author is Executive Director, GRAVIS)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
