Last week I was a member of a roundtable organized by Dignity Foundation to discuss the impact of the global economic meltdown on the life of senior citizens in India. The roundtable was organized by Dr Sheilu Sreenivasan and the moderator of the roundtable was Sucheta Dalal. Several senior citizens were members of the roundtable.

My take-aways were:

• The population of senior citizens is growing in India.
• Senior citizens need to retire in the prime of their careers making way for the young.
• The cost of healthcare comes as a rude shock to professionals post-retirement.
• The life of senior citizens is substantially dependent on support from children. Children (earning adults) based in India, USA and Europe enable seniors to lead a respectable quality of life.
• Over the past few months, with the global economy accelerating south, several children have been victims of downsizing of companies. This has severely impacted the seniors.
• New Delhi is in denial. It believes we are significantly insulated from the troubled global economy. The iceberg is melting for others; India is a land of abundant sunshine.
• Seniors would like politicians to study the plight of Tirupur and Ludhiana; the break-even points of the IT and auto ancillary companies; the predicament of international banks in India; the spending profile of customers; and more. If we are in the pink of health, why are there pink slips for our children?

Denial or no-denial, we as a nation need to ensure our youth is gainfully employed. Only then will our families lead a respectable quality of life. The news of partial placement of our fresh graduates from engineering and business school (IITs and IIMs included) is emotionally disturbing. But such are the realities.

Individuals, that is, fresh graduates as well as the victims of downsizing, need to face the challenge with courage. They need to “differentiate” and prove their market-readiness. I recommend that they invest in adding to their professional qualifications, very carefully, with affordable certifications that can make them market-ready. I have in mind the Q-Grad Diploma offered by Qimpro College. The syllabus focus is on what industrialists (namely Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Azim Premji, Deepak Parekh, Kumar Mangalam Birla, amongst others) would like their employees to do: Improve process efficiencies and thereby reduce wasteful costs. Obviously, this will ensure job security even in turbulent times.

So long as we think Indian, and rightly so, the elders will enjoy a place of reverence and need unconditional care. Enabling the young to be gainfully employed is a form of social security for the senior citizens.