Himachal, Chandigarh leading in quality of life for elderly: Report

NEW DELHI : The government on Wednesday released an index to measure the quality of life led by the elderly in India.

The study was released by Bibek Debroy who is the chairman of the economic advisory committee of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The study carried out by the Institute for Competitiveness aims to reflect upon the problems faced by the elderly. The study identifies the overall ageing situation of India and focuses on the regional patterns of ageing across states and Union Territories. The study found out that Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Chandigarh are states which lead in the categories - aged states, relatively aged states, northeastern states and Union territories. The framework of the index included four pillars: financial well-being, social wellbeing, health system and income security. It also included eight sub-pillars: economic empowerment, educational attainment and employment, social status, physical security, basic health, psychological well being, social security and enabling environment.

Among all the states, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are top-scoring regions in the aged states and relatively aged states categories. Rajasthan has a score of 54.61 in the aged states category while Himachal Pradesh has a score of 61.04 in relatively aged states. Mizoram has a score of 59.79 among northeastern states while Chandigarh scored 63.78 among the Union Territories. Jammu and Kashmir scored the lowest 46.16 among Union Territories. Arunachal Pradesh, among the northeastern states, scored the lowest score with 46.16. In the aged states and relatively aged states categories, Telangana and Gujarat scored the lowest with 38.19 and 49.00, respectively.