“THE increase in life expectancy in Kerala in recent years has resulted in raising the number of aged people in the State and at the current rate their population would touch 13.6 per cent of the State's total population by 2011.
Drop in population growth coupled with improved standard of living and better social welfare infrastructures has brought down the number of people under 20 years of age to 29.51 per cent in 2001 from 48.97 per cent in 1961. However, the number of old in the age group of 60 to 74 has gone up to 8.09 per cent in 2001 from 4.69 per cent in 1961.
Those above 75 years went up to 10.83 per cent from 5.83 per cent. Significantly, the number of people in the working age group - 20 to 64 years - increased to 59.65 per cent in 2001 from 45.19 per cent in 1961, according to a study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
The large greying population will give rise to societal shifts in terms of health needs, work participation rate, dependency rate, service pension requirements and social security system, says Dr K.K. George, head of the Centre for Socio-Economic and Environmental Studies (CESS), here.
He said that Kerala's success in extending life expectancy has been burdening the Government with a high volume of service pension payments. The problem is likely to be aggravated in future, as death rates are likely to fall further among senior citizens in the State. Already, these pensions account for 16.2 per cent of the State's revenue expenditure as against the average of 8.7 per cent for all the States.
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