Bio-politics of Ageing and Old Age Care in India: Law, Policy and Beyond

It is argued that due to India’s young demographic composition productivity is going to witness a continual upward rise in the coming decades, propelling the nation to take its place in the topmost tier of global hierarchy. The current euphoria over the so-called demographic dividend raises important questions- are we considering the elderly population as a burden and a limiting factor in India’s growth story? Whether the current treatment meted out to the elderly in India by the so-called welfare state is proportional to their economic value defined in grossly mechanistic manner? This essay is a modest attempt to answer these questions and unearth the larger systemic and political logic underlying the situation of the elderly and old age care in India. In this connection, this paper intends to present the theoretical possibilities of the concept of biopolitics in explaining some of the key concerns of the legal and policy frameworks of old age care in India with respect to Indian scenario.