Publisher's Synopsis
INTRODUCTION 1.1: Aging Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. As people abdicate from previous more enticing periods which was a time of "usefulness" or productive period, they enter the period of old age. Aging is an unavoidable phenomenon in all biological species as well as non-life forms. The elderly people ignoring the future as much as possible admire past regretting their earlier periods of life as they move away. According to Gorman - The ageing and development report (2017), the number of old age people in India is increasing with the improvement in life expectancy. The issues of the elderly are primarily economic, marked by the loss of independent income. One can't reverse nor stop the aging process; diseases and disability are part of old age, but it does not necessarily mean that we have to take them in negative way. With the changing family structure from interdependent joint families to independent nuclear families, our elders do not lead a safe, secure and dignified life. Enhancing quality of life and productivity is important and encouraging goal of gerontologists. A study into productive aging commissioned by the Office for the Ageing (Ranzijn, 2002) reported, quality of life research tends to see aging persons as recipients of external influences rather than active agents operating in context. It is argued that elderly people have unique talents in the realms of community development and citizenship. A paradigm shift in behavior to older people is required, towards viewing them as a resource rather than a burden. Proactive ageing can enhance an older individual's quality of life and by extension of the quality of life of the whole community. In everyday life we come across many benefits that are granted to the elderly, such as parking spaces near the entrance locations, preferred passwords in banks, half price for travel tickets and movies. All these benefits aim to bring more facilities, but account for only practical issues of quality of life and leave open their emotional and affective demands, that are already part for some time of the development of the life cycle of these elderly, or more modern denomination, of the late adults, seniors or persons in the late adulthood, who already,
