W B Yeats’ iconic opening line of the poem ‘ Sailing to Byzantium’, 1926, declares on a sad note ‘that is no country for old men’. In a systematically developed series of images the poet unravels the contexts of growing old and highlights how aging often evolves into irrelevance rather than a value for wisdom.

The theme has later been developed into equally powerful works of art and cinema such as Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel and the Coen Brothers’ 2007 film adaptation, both of which explore the theme of aging and the difficulty of maintaining relevance in a rapidly changing world. Since 14 December 1990, when the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons, there has been growing awareness of the necessity of recognizing the importance of the older persons as stakeholders in the collective development of the society.

Advertisement

Contemporary statistics on world population reveal that the number of older people (defined as those aged 65 years or older) tripled from around 260 million in 1980 to 761 million in 2021. Between 2021 and 2050, the global share of the older population is projected to increase from less than 10 per cent to around 17 per cent. The number of people aged 60 years or over has more than doubled, from around 541 million in 1995 to 1.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach 2.1 billion by 2050. By 2080, persons aged 65 or older will outnumber children under 18.

Advertisement

This surge in the population of the older persons is ascribed to the fact that global life expectancy has reached 73.5 years in 2025, an increase of 8.6 years since 1995 largely due to advances in geriatric care and greater reach of medical management of age-related issues. It is common knowledge that as populations age, the demand for healthcare and social support surges, especially for those with conditions like........

© The Statesman