SHILLONG: The increase in the population of the aged in the country will further increase the risk of getting infected with various problems, Dr Anuj Sharma of WHO India said adding that “The challenge remains that it is not enough to add further years to life but to add life to years”.
Dr Sharma informed that the number of people at the age of 60 and over has doubled since 1980 but with old age comes various ailments and disorders.
Dr Sharma was addressing a function to observe the World Health Day 2012 sponsored by WHO India Office under the theme “Ageing and Health” with a slogan good health adds life to years held at NEIGRIHMS here on Wednesday.
Highlighting on the theme of this year’s celebration “Ageing and Health” Dr Sharma said communicable diseases have become a problem in India but non communicable diseases as well have been increased dramatically and this is because population of ageing is increasing.
“Therefore the quest of the WHO is to bring about active ageing in the life of the elderly population”, he added.
As per the statistics provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) it was mentioned that the population aged 60 years and above will grow from 77 million that is 7.4 percent of the total population in 2001 to 300 million that is 17 percent by 2050.