Gender Disparity Among the Graying Population in India

Devarupa Gupta , International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The process of ageing universally shows that there are a greater number of older women than men in the later years. This paper tries to assess the phenomena of ‘feminization’ of ageing in India. Females have higher life expectancy. The paper brings out the trends and patterns of sex ratio in aged population, among the states of India for three consecutive Census years; 1991, 2001 and 2011. The number of states undergoing this process has increased from six in 1991 to sixteen in 2001 and seventeen in 2011. The southern and western states of the country have reached this process ahead of the others. The general trend of life expectancy especially at and after the age of sixty years of age shows the increasing gap of remaining years of life between the sexes. The urban-rural disparity in sex ratio is prominent with rural parts having higher sex-ratio above sixty years.

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 Presented in Session 6. Health & Mortality & Aging