The health status of the elderly and their labour force participation in selected states of India: a multivariate analysis

Soumitra Ghosh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

As of 2004, India has 75 million elderly people, second only to China.In the absence of comprehensive social security system about 63 percent of men and 58 per cent of women continue to work and are economically active beyond the age of 60.Given the background this paper examines the pattern of morbidity prevalence, disabilities and work participation and the linkages between the health status and labour force participation among the elderly in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Punjab. The 52nd round (1995-96) of the National Sample Survey data on ‘morbidity and health care’ and Census 2001 are used for this analysis. The relations that have been examined are (1) elderly with good health have a higher propensity to work, (2) elderly health status tend to vary significantly by their socio-economic status and work participation tend to vary correspondingly.