Asia is ageing at a speed without historical precedent. Japan, South Korea and China have moved from young to aged societies in a matter of decades, compressing demographic transitions that unfolded far more slowly in Europe. By 2050, more than a quarter of Asia’s population will be over 60, placing unprecedented pressure on labour markets, health systems and social protection frameworks.
India stands apart.
While its neighbours prepare for 100-year lives, India remains one of the youngest countries in the region. Its median age is still under 30, compared to over 48 in Japan and rapidly rising in China and South Korea. This demographic divergence positions India as both an outlier and a hinge point in Asia’s future: a country whose choices today will determine whether youth becomes a dividend, or a deferred burden.
Youth Is Not Immunity
India’s demographic youthfulness should not be mistaken for insulation from longevity challenges. Research from the UN Population Division shows that India will begin ageing rapidly after 2035, with the absolute number of older adults rising sharply even as the country remains younger, on average, than its neighbours.
What distinguishes India is timing. Unlike East Asian economies that aged before achieving universal health coverage or gender parity in the workforce, India has a narrow but critical window to prepare by investing in health, skills and social systems before ageing accelerates.
This window is especially consequential for women.
The Longevity Gap Is Gendered
Globally, women live longer than men but they also spend more years in poor health, unpaid care work and financial insecurity. In Asia’s ageing societies, women account for a disproportionate share of the elderly poor.
India’s younger age structure offers a chance to break this pattern early. However, evidence suggests that without intervention, the gendered longevity gap will persist.
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study shows that Indian women experience high years lived with disability due to anaemia, reproductive health conditions and non-communicable diseases beginning in midlife.
At the same time, labour force participation among Indian women remains among the lowest in Asia. OECD and ILO data consistently link women’s lifetime health and economic participation to better ageing outcomes, both at individual and societal levels.
How India supports women in their 20s, 30s and 40s will shape how the country ages decades later.
Learning from Ageing Neighbours — Before It’s Too Late
East Asia’s experience offers clear lessons.
Japan and South Korea built long life expectancy through strong public health and education systems, but entered ageing with rigid labour markets and deeply gendered care roles. China, despite rapid economic growth, faces a growing old-age dependency challenge as chronic disease and pension gaps converge.
Comparative research in The Lancet Healthy Longevity highlights that societies which failed to integrate women into paid work and preventive healthcare early now face higher long-term fiscal and care burdens.
India can chart a different path by aligning youth, women’s agency and health as a single strategy.
Health Today Is Longevity Tomorrow
Longevity is not built at age 60. It is accumulated across the life course.
WHO’s life-course health framework shows that nutrition, reproductive health, mental wellbeing and economic security in early and mid-adulthood are decisive determinants of healthy ageing.
India’s younger population means that investments in women’s health and prevention today have multiplicative returns: fewer chronic diseases later, lower dependency ratios and higher productive ageing.
This is particularly relevant in low-income and marginalised communities, where health risks accumulate earlier and ageing begins sooner in functional terms, even if chronological age remains low.
Women as the Bridge Between Demography and Development
From a macroeconomic perspective, women sit at the centre of India’s demographic advantage.
World Bank modelling shows that countries which combine demographic youth with higher female labour participation see sustained growth and slower ageing-related fiscal stress.
Women’s economic agency improves household nutrition, education and health outcomes — key inputs into a healthier future elderly population.
But this requires moving beyond episodic interventions toward integrated life-cycle support.
Grounding the Demographic Dividend in Community Systems
Evidence from implementation research shows that outcomes depend on whether services reach women where they live, work and care.
This is where organisations such as Smile Foundation play a structurally important role. Through women-centred initiatives that combine healthcare access, nutrition, livelihood support and education, Smile Foundation operates at the intersection where demographic potential is either realised or lost.
By strengthening women’s health, skills and agency during working years, such programmes shape India’s future ageing profile reducing vulnerability long before it appears in old-age statistics.
This is not social spending but longevity preparation.
Rethinking Longevity from a Young Country’s Perspective
Asia’s longevity narrative is often framed around retirement systems, pensions and eldercare. India’s contribution to this conversation must be different.
For India, the central question is not how to manage long lives but how to build healthy, productive ones early enough that ageing becomes manageable later.
This requires:
- prioritising preventive health for women and adolescents
- expanding women’s participation in paid and dignified work
- reducing unpaid care burdens
- embedding health and financial resilience across the life course
The evidence is that countries that act early age better.
A Window That Will Not Stay Open
India’s youth advantage is real but temporary.
Demography is destiny only if policy is absent. As neighbouring countries grapple with the costs of rapid ageing, India has a rare chance to prepare while it is still young.
Whether India becomes a country that ages before it grows old or one that transforms youth into lasting wellbeing will depend on how deliberately it invests in women today.
In an Asia defined by longevity, India’s exception may yet become its greatest contribution.
