Ageism

🎯 How This Word Works in UPSC Writing

Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination on the basis of age. The WHO Global Report on Ageism (2021) found that one in two people worldwide hold ageist attitudes towards older people, and in Europe, the only region with comparable data, one in three reported experiencing it, which makes ageism the most normalised and least contested of the major prejudices. India's stake in it is demographic: the share of people aged 60 and above is projected to rise from 10.1 per cent in 2021 to 15 per cent by 2036 and 20.8 per cent by 2050, with the elderly outnumbering children under 15 by 2046 (UNFPA India Ageing Report 2023). What makes ageism a policy problem rather than an attitude problem is that it is embedded in systems: insurance underwriting that prices out older applicants, employment practices that treat a birth date as evidence about capacity, and clinical judgement that files a treatable symptom under old age. Two Indian instruments are worth holding. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 gives parents a summary remedy before a maintenance tribunal rather than an ordinary civil suit. Ayushman Vay Vandana, launched on 29 October 2024, extends AB PM-JAY cover of five lakh rupees a year to everyone aged 70 and above regardless of income, one of the few Indian entitlements that turns on age alone and not on a means test, with over 1.14 crore cards issued as at 28 February 2026.