एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार १९६० से अब औसत आयु दुगनी हो गयी है . परन्तु इसके साथ साथ एक नयी समस्या पैदा हो गयी है की कैसे लोग अपने जीवन का सदुपयोग आदर सहित करें . पुराणी मान्याताएँ टूट रही हैं . सरकार पेंशन देती है पर बहुत संस्थाएं पेंशन नहीं देती . लम्बी आयु दूसरा बचपन ले आती है .उससे समझौता भी कठिन होता है .
इस लेख के लिंक पर क्लिक कर पढ़ें .
http://www.indiaseniors.org/economic-and-people-living-longer/
The good news first – Longevity is increasing….. we are living longer. Life expectancy in India has increased by nearly 50 per cent since 1960, says India Health Report 2010 by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indicus Analytics.
The worrying part now – The rise in living standards and reduction in sickness have created the problem of a second childhood: people are at risk of living beyond the age when they can support and look after themselves, and of becoming dependent. And of course, the second childhood often doesn’t trigger the tolerance and affection enveloping the first childhood 
Interestingly, there is a correlation between standards of living and longevity; societies that witness higher sub-populations of aged citizens also have greater resources to bear them. The richer countries have better/efficient tools to aid this phase of life – old age pension, subsidised healthcare, Insurance (medical as well as life), forced savings etc. India is progressively getting there. National Pension scheme is increasingly getting popularity, so is old age medical insurance.
Longevity does not only create financial problems. Old people also require more help in day-to-day living. Rich countries have the resources to afford that. But they are also more short of workers, whose help many old people need to get through life.
Governments define pensionable age in two ways. One is a fixed age, such as 58/60; at that age, the elderly get a fixed pension. Another is a minimum number of years at work, say 35 or 40. Some governments have now developed a hybrid: they give a minimum pension based on minimum years of work, and a bonus for every extra year of work. However, the earnings during that year would be taxed, so net, there would be a subsidy or tax — in effect, an incentive or disincentive to work beyond retirement age. Japan’s implicit tax is the lowest amongst industrial countries, so it has 75 per cent of old people working; Belgium’s tax is the highest, so only 20 per cent of its old people work.
Pension funds are torn between the need to maximize returns and to keep money safe; governments seek to make them even safer by imposing rules on asset allocation. As a result, pension funds’ returns are modest. A rise in life expectancy for eg. has resulted in a Rs 2,400-crore hit for State Bank of India during the current financial year. Compared to a pension provision of Rs 481 crore in the first quarter of FY13, the bank has made a provision of Rs 1,003 crore – an increase of 108%; a result of revaluation of actuarial statistics of past and present employees.
And then we start getting onion at Rs. 80 a Kg!! How does old age pension handle inflation
Till now, developed countries have tended to reduce retirement benefits as demand outruns pension funds’ income. An alternative path suggested by experts: that the retirement age should rise as people live longer.
