Living Standard Index for the Older Adults: An Indian Peri-urban Study

Abstract

Traditionally, the well-being and living standards of an individual were measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Later, a gradual shift was noticed from economic to socio-economic measures leading to prioritization of the Human Development Index (HDI). However, to overcome certain limitations in the HDI, a detailed analysis of its sub-indices is necessitated. Thus, the contextualization of Living Standards (LS) one of the sub-factors of HDI may be introduced applied to broaden the domain of human well-being. Since then, living standards have expanded from economic indicators to that of non-econometric factors such as family concern, occupational status, personality etc. Despite this, there is hardly any indicator measuring the Living Standard Index (LSI) in the Indian context, especially for the older adults in India. Here, the study is conducted amongst 390 older adults’ respondents of a peri-urban region of India through a multi-stage cluster sampling. This study outcome reveals that the LSI of the Indian older adults is dependent on the region-specific amenities, their age-groups, and living arrangement within their proximate networked members. Thus, the LSI may be influential in implementing policies for the older adults in the Indian context and that may be replicated across the globe.