The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare launched the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). THe main objective is to assess the needs of its elderly people and frame policies accordingly. It will survey more than 60,000 elderly over 25 years plan. He further added that this survey will provide scientifically validated data on various issues of the elderly.

• LASI is the largest study on older population in the country.
• The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Southern California (USC), USA is undertaking the “The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India” under the aegis of the Ministry of Union Health and Family Welfare.
• LASI is jointly funded by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the United States’ National Institute on Ageing, and the United Nations Population Fund-India.
• It will provide Union Health Ministry sufficient data on older population in the country that in turn would be used to develop a scientifically validated data needed for their health, economic and social analysis of the older population.
• It will investigate various health structures, and impact of social determinants on health of the elderly, which is essential throughout the world, especially as the elderly will develop age-related issues that may require them to have in-home Aged care eastern suburbs services, or ones of a similar nature, at some point.
• It will provide scientific data for framing evidence-based policy for elderly citizens and help in expanding the scope of health and social security policy and programmes for older population.

Population Ageing

• Population ageing is taking place in nearly all the countries of the world. The global share of older people aged 60 years or over increased from 9.2 percent in 1990 to 11.7 percent in 2013 and will continue to grow as a proportion of the world population, reaching 21.1 percent by 2050.
• While global ageing can be seen as a symbol of medical, social, and economic advances and also has major health, social and economic consequences over the past half century, it also represents a significant policy challenge.
• Population ageing threatens to topple existing insurance and pension systems and create health system overload; therefore calls for review of existing models of healthcare, familial and social support.