Abstract: This chapter explores the relevance of social security, social policy, and the relationship of pension incomes on the health of older adults in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) context. From current global evidence and relying on the large nationally representative LASI survey data from India, this chapter provides a synthesized review of evidence on pensions and its effect on health and the association of pension effects on the health and quality of life of older adults. Though pensions are known to generate positive well-being outcomes including improved health status, the evidence is limited and is reflective of the challenge of establishing such an effect. Disconcertingly, even in the developmentally and demographically advanced southern States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Pondicherry, the proportion of older adults aged 45 and above with poor self-reported health (SRH) was higher. Current residence, religion, caste, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, marital status, and old-age security income (pension) were strongly related to the self-reported health of older adults in India. These findings highlight that since there is no single intervention that can rapidly ameliorate the disadvantages of residence, religion, caste, education, socioeconomic status, and marital status of older adults, the focus needs to be on enabling older adults to work if they can and wish to, to offer retirement benefits and pension incomes to support their independency and meet their personal needs as well as to supplement their household needs. A large body of evidence states that work, retirement, and pension bear a significant relation to the self-reliance and economic dependency of older adults and hence shortfalls in any one of these can significantly undermine physical, economic, health, and psychological well-being of older adults. It is underscored that insufficient attention is being given to social protection of older adults in the assumption that filial piety can be expected to cater to older adults’ needs; however, that it not a sound assumption in today’s changing demography and sociocultural trends, and hence public social security provisioning becomes necessary to serve the dual purpose of economic protection as well as health-risk protection for older adults in India.

Authors’ Names: Allen P Ugargol, Gyan Chandra Kashyap & Subhojit Shaw 

Journal Name: Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy

URL: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-16-1914-4_172-1