The Ageing World

It is now common knowledge that the world is greying. The elderly are increasing in number, and the birthrate is declining. The trend is universal, but not all nations are greying at the same time or at the same pace. This unequal greying is setting in motion a new social dynamic, idenitified by Dr. Bagchi as “grey dynamics”. Slender families, the breakdown of marriages, children with no siblings or cousins, and vanishing multi-generational homes are all symptoms of the future grey world.. The Ageing World is an exploration of this complex new world ahead. In this fast changing world, the long-living individuals will have to live effectively, and this effective living will become a social compulsion. The shrinking workforce won’t have the strength to carry the burden of the elderly population—one and half billion by mid-century. The overall effect of the new demography will depend on what people make of their later life. This volume is an exploration of the burgeoning new world we all will face. Globalisation, already a reality, will be hastened by the new element of unequal greying. This complex social process of change will be further complexified by the existing inequalities of wealth and knowledge distribution. The Ageing World looks at life as an assertion of the human spirit, in tune with the aphorism of Erwin Schrodinger, the Nobel laureate physicist who defined life as a fight against degeneration.