new delhi india has finally woken up to the needs of the countrys elderly with the number of people in the 60plus age group in india expected to increase to 100 million in 2013 and to 198 million in 2030 the health ministry is all set to roll out the national programme for the health care of the elderly nphcea ministry note available with toi estimates that the elderly population will increase to 12 of the total population by 2025 10 of which would be bedridden requiring utmost carethats why we have formulated nphce to address various healthrelated problems of elderly people the programme has got final approval from the expenditure finance committee the ministry has already finalized operational guidelines and sent it to states for implementation joint secretary b k prasad told toiprasad added that funds were already being released and by 2012 the programme designed to be preventive curative and rehabilitative for the elderly would be rolled out in 100 districts of 21 states according to the note india will soon become home to the second largest number of older people in the worldhowever the challenges are unique with this population in india a majority 80 of them are in the rural areas thus making service delivery a challenge feminisation of the elderly population 51 of the elderly population would be women by 2016 increase in the number of the olderold persons above 80 years and 30 of the elderly are below poverty line the note saidunder the programme district hospitals are being aided to start a 10bedded geriatric ward eight regional 30bedded geriatric centres are being set up in places like aiims pgi chandigarh government medical college in jaipur and madras medical collegein the subcentres male health workers will be trained to make domiciliary visits to the elderly in areas under their jurisdiction they will give special attention to the elderly who are bedridden and provide training to the family in looking after the disabled they will arrange suitable callipers and supportive devices and provide them to elderly disabled people to make them ambulatorythe district hospital will provide regular dedicated opd services to the elderly besides setting up a 10bed geriatric ward with increasing life expectancy demographic ageing is an emerging phenomenon which will hit india hard in the coming years