The Pandemic and the Elderly: Navigating Age and the COVID-19 Policies of India

Abstract

Several media reports have highlighted how various sections of India’s population have been coping with the pandemic. Extending this debate, many academic articles have focussed on how the pandemic has led to multiple challenges for medical professionals and impacted rising unemployment rates and low female labour force participation in India. But India’s elderly who have been grappling with significant problems as a result of COVID-19 appear to be missing from both academic research as well as the policy narrative. Based on qualitative interviews, this article demonstrates how the elderly in an urban city of India dealt with the pandemic as well as the nationwide lockdown. Additionally, this article will also discuss the policies that should be put into place to address the needs of the elderly population in the country. In this regard, this article will discuss the impact of vaccine policies on the elderly and illustrate intersections between later life experiences and a global disaster such as a pandemic in urban India.