Handbook of Aging, Health and Public Policy: Perspectives from Asia

This handbook presents the latest information on all aspects of global aging, with a focus on Asia, including policies, age-associated diseases and conditions, health services, long-term care, living arrangements, income and social security, preventing abuse, and the impact of migration on the elderly. Furthermore, the book presents a synthesis of research on population aging, social protection policies, crimes against the elderly, new analyses of trends, and discussions of major social policy strategies. Written by academics, practitioners and policymakers in the field of gerontology, the book offers an informative resource for demographers, gerontologists, economists, anthropologists and other social scientists studying various facets of aging, as well as students in the social and health sciences.

S. Irudaya Rajan is a Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, India. He is the President of International Institute for Population Sciences Alumni Association, Mumbai. He was the President of the Association of Gerontology (AGI, India) as well as Kerala Economic Association (KEA). He has close to four decades of research experience and has published extensively in national and international journals on demographic, economic, social and health implications of aging. He is the lead author of the book named India’s Elderly: Burden or Challenge? (1999) and has edited.co-edited various books; Social Security for the Elderly: Experiences from South Asia (2008); India’s Aged: Needs and Vulnerability (2017); Elderly Care in India: Societal and State Responses (Springer, 2017) and Abuse and Neglect of the Elderly in India (Springer, 2018). He developed the first longitudinal Ageing Survey in Kerala (India) in 2004; repeated every three years, it completed its sixth wave in 2019. The second longitudinal Ageing Survey in Kerala started in 2013, completed its third wave in 2019.

Professor Rajan has been involved in several projects on aging funded by the United Nations (UN), United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), the World Bank, International Labour Organization (ILO), HelpAge International, South Asian Network of Economic Institutes, Indo-Dutch Program on Alternatives in Development, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, International Development Research Centre and Indian Council for Social Science Research. He has also undertaken considerable research on migration and is the editor the annual series, India Migration Report as well as editor-in-chief of the journal Migration and Development.