India is witnessing a demographic revolution, leading to a considerable increase in the proportion of older people in the population. Similarly, life expectancy of both the mentally and physically disabled has improved considerably. About 5% of Indian older people have problems with physical mobility. Aging has become a gender issue in India not only because more women are surviving into old age; they are also vulnerable and disadvantaged in many ways. In most cases they are the only caregivers available for the old and disabled. Older Indians are considered a high-risk group for multiple morbidity. It is estimated that nearly four million Indians suffer from mental problems. India has around 12 million people designated as "handicapped." However, little information is available about disabled people who grow older. The National Policy on Older Persons, which has been recently formulated, aims at providing an improved quality of life for millions of older Indians. However, the concerns of older disabled and of the disabled who grow old are still treated separately in both policy and practice.

No abstract

No abstract

Menopause in women is a significant biological marker of ageing that has several psychosocial connotations. Earlier efforts to understand the effect of menopause on physiology and psychology of women were shaped more by popular myths, societal stereotypes and medical opinion. Research in this field has moved from uncritical reliance on medical views of menopause to more women-oriented studies. There is also an active movement to 'demedicalize' and ' 'demystify' menopause and encourage women to examine their feelings and experiences. This article traces the historical views and evaluates the current findings regarding the effect of menopause of women's health, well-being, and sexuality.A major transition in the life cycle of women during middle age is menopause. The cessation of menstruation announces, in unequivocal terms, that a woman's reproductive role has come to an end. As dramatic an event as the menarche, menopause is often believed to be a significant event that strains the coping abilities of women. It is a topic that is surrounded not just by old wives' tales but also with 'scientific myths'. Menopause, as a field of investigation presents several interesting contrasts. An ubiquitous event in the life of women, it never got the attention it deserved. An experience that millions of women undergo all over the would, was often devoted a page or so in standard text books of Gynaecology. Feminists who were so vocal about premenstrual syndrome were slower in picking up issues of menopausal women. Psychology of women was so engrossed in disproving psychological difference based on biological sex that it had little time to focus on developmental issues of middle aged and older women. With dramatic increase in life expectancy, women had more than a decade of post-