ARTH has been working to improve health and quality of life of older persons in rural-tribal areas of southern Rajasthan since 2018. Poverty, lack of education and mobility among older persons living in scattered villages make it a challenge to reach them.
The World Population Prospects (2024) forecasts significant growth in the population of older persons worldwide by 2050. India and China will make major contributions due to their large populations. Our programme is informed by ground experiences in an iterative manner, so as to make a larger impact. Older persons face decline in physical and mental capacities coupled with social, economical and environmental barriers. Several suffer multiple morbidities that continue for long periods or even till the end of life. Disease specific approaches have been found to be less useful as compared to holistic, person-centred approaches. Ensuring well being and support for healthy ageing using a person-centred approach is therefore the need of the hour.
ARTH’s outreach to older persons in a population of 2,00,000 in 7 blocks in southern Rajasthan
In 2020, ARTH introduced the WHO Integrated Care of Older Persons (ICOPE) protocol in its area
Results
(till March 2025)
Indicator | n (%) |
Registered members | 10,130 |
Prabal Yatra Manch monthly meetings | 1,878 |
PY members who attended at least 1 meeting | 4,344 (42.8%) |
Health assessments of PY members | 2,186 (21.5%) |
Home environment assessments | 3,160 (31.2%) |
Older persons identified with chronic diseases and followed up with | 287 |
Eye related treatments done (glasses + surgeries) | 438 |
Home improvements made after assessment | 687 |
Walking aids to improve mobility | 307 |
Solar lamp to improve visibility at night | 85 |
Older persons supported to get their pension and ration issues resolved | 78 |
Going forward
We are refining a model of care to enable healthy ageing among vulnerable sections of the community, and are confident that robust community based interventions to improve the health of older persons can help inform national and state policies as well as programmes.