Indian youths pair up with ‘grandpals’ in Ratan Tata-backed scheme to fight elderly loneliness

The issue of lonely elderly is likely to get increasingly acute as India’s population growth slows and its number of elderly people grows

Goodfellows is the brainchild of Shantanu Naidu, who oversees wealthy industrialist Ratan Tata’s personal office and start-up portfolio

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More elderly Indians are becoming empty nesters as their children move out for work. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 12:15pm, 25 Aug 2022

With India’s 60-plus population set to rise significantly over the next decades, combating elderly loneliness is looming as a major challenge.

With half the nation of 1.4 billion people under the age of 30, India is still primarily a young country. Roughly 10 per cent of the population is over the age of 60. But those favourable demographics are changing fast.

The number of seniors will soar by 41 per cent to hit 194 million by 2031, up from 138 million now, the statistics ministry projected in a just-released report. By 2050, the over-60s will make up nearly 20 per cent of the population.

The need to tackle the problem of social isolation for senior citizens was driven home during the coronavirus pandemic, when lengthy lockdowns and other curbs on mixing meant enforced solitude for the elderly.

Cornell University MBA graduate Shantanu Naidu, 30, said he saw during the pandemic how “companionship and conversation were so important” to his elderly neighbours in Mumbai where he lives. It inspired him to found Goodfellows, a service that pairs elderly folk, known as “grandpals”, with university graduates known as “goodfellows”.