A report released by the United Nations Population Fund and HelpAge India suggests that the number of elderly persons is expected to grow to 173 million by 2026.
This means that there is an increasing need on awareness about all aspects of ageing, and the creation of age-friendly environments. By investing our efforts wisely, we can turn our senior population into a resource because their contributions can be quite valuable ( whether it is in their family, local community or to society as a whole).
Societies that adapt to this changing demographic and invest in Healthy and Active Ageing can enable individuals to live longer, more fruitful, healthier and happier lives.
According to the UN, the share of older people aged above the age of 60 in India is projected to increase to nearly 20% by 2050.
The goal is to equip people from an early age with knowledge, awareness and resources so that we can all work together to help our seniors remain in good health and stay involved in the community throughout the ageing process.
We need to focus on 3 main areas :
- older persons and infrastructure development
- advancing health and wellbeing into old age
- and ensuring the presence of supportive environments for ageing.
A good example of this concept of age-friendly spaces is with regards to restaurants and cafes in Hyderabad. Every time there is a new cool place that opens up, our seniors are super excited about it.
But then, the questions come up, is this place easy to access, does it have steps, can we go there with walkers and wheelchairs? And usually the answers to these questions are NO.
It is so important for our young entrepreneurs out there to keep this demographic in mind. We’ve seen the numbers and the future predictions of growth in this market segment. This is an essential demographic that is constantly feeling left out and ignored. Think about them, keep them in mind when you are planning your spaces and projects, put in accessible ramps, create senior days or times, put in senior discounts, do what you can to make them feel included.
We feel so strongly about this that we have created a DOBARA Review and Recommendation system where we give our stamp of approval to places which qualify as senior friendly. It is so important to be inclusive and we hope this DOBARA Stamp of Approval and our work through DOBARA encourages businesses to really start taking the needs of their senior customers into consideration.
If you have a business that is senior friendly, please write to us, info@dobara.org
We would be happy to find out more about it and get our senior members to review it.
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