Background:
Among the states of India, Kerala is likely to be the first aging society, and it is one of the pioneers to introduce a senior citizen policy of its own. Elderly care in the state is an integrated effort of many departments with local governments (LGs) playing a major role. This comes with many challenges at different levels of the policy implementation.
Methodology:
A qualitative approach is used involving document review, key informant interviews, and secondary data analysis.
Results:
The results are organized under four themes: (1) decentralized governance and elderly care, (2) the role of various stakeholders other than LG in elderly care initiatives, (3) challenges in planning and implementation of elderly care programs, and (4) from State Old Age Policy (2006) to State Policy for Senior Citizens (2013). The existing projects are mostly focused on nutrition, infrastructure facilities, and treatment of noncommunicable diseases, while challenges such as feminization of age and specific needs of the heterogeneous elderly population are least prioritized.
Conclusion:
Secondary data analysis and the perspectives from stakeholders at different levels of the system emphasize the inefficient utilization of allocated funds, inadequacy of domain experts, capacity building facilities and situation analysis during the planning process, and lack of consistent monitoring and evaluation of existing projects. While the LGs have a major role in the planning and implementation of elderly care initiatives, the existing gaps identified from the study show that there is a need for a better framework and a holistic vision to effectively integrate various stakeholders in elderly care with a right-based perspective.