Photo of a man leaning on his walking stick.
Photo for representational purpose.
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As India ages and faces a multitude of geopolitical challenges, its future lies not only in its youth but also in how it harnesses its older and more experienced workers. Its demographic dividend can be leveraged through its ‘experience dividend’.
India is the youngest large country in the world. Yet paradoxically, its future hinges on how it treats its older, more experienced workers, i.e., the silver generation.
The real question is not whether India has a demographic dividend, but whether it can also mobilise an experience dividend. India’s true edge lies in its dual dividend of both youth and experience. The former can build on the successes of the latter.
By 2047, India will be home to nearly 300 million older adults. To rely only on youth alone is shortsighted; self-reliance requires tapping into the experience dividend of those who helped build the economy of the last 30 years. Without harnessing the experience and knowledge of its older workers, India risks squandering this golden opportunity.
Across the world, ageing societies are adapting to make the silver generation key to the economy. Germany relies on apprenticeships, Japan keeps its elderly engaged in community and social functions, and the largest proportion of entrepreneurs in the United States and the United Kingdom are aged 50 and above. Unlike the West, India is still early in its ageing journey, giving it a rare chance to design systems where the silver generation can train and guide its youth.
This positioning of two distinct yet highlighted productive demographic groups gives it time to design systems where older workers train and guide the young, making its demographic dividend a genuine asset.
A report by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, Ashoka, and Dalberg underscores the role this ‘experience dividend’ could play in shaping the economy. It is estimated that this segment could add another 1.5% to GDP if more of them re-entered the labour force. Structured corporate pathways, from providing mentorship in IT firms to shaping infrastructure projects and their implementation, have the potential to turn experience into a growth lever.
India has been at an analogous crossroads in the past and has always drawn on older technocrats and leaders with institutional memory — from building institutions in 1947 to opening the economy in 1991. Today’s challenge is to embed that experience systematically into youth training pipelines. There is growing evidence of organisations staffed by older workers and retirees that play important roles in providing mentorship, community building, and added support, but the state must find ways to harness them to support India’s aspiration. It is a matter of economic and national importance.
Take foreign policy, for example, where India shaped global institutions and discourse on key issues, from Hansa Jivraj Mehta, who helped shape the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who helped shape global health policies in the 1950s. These efforts, compounded with our foreign policy groundings in democracy, pluralism, and non-alignment, made us a model for emerging countries. India’s outsized presence in global forums ensured that it was front and centre in mediating several global crises, from the end of the Korean War in 1953 to the Suez Crisis in 1956, and later on, a new cadre of diplomats used these learnings to lead the charge against Apartheid South Africa and the war in Vietnam.
Similarly, stalwarts like Manmohan Singh, I G Patel, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia heralded India's economic reforms in the 1990s, delivering sustained growth and creating space for a new generation of businesses to flourish. This is not to say the past alone is a guidepost for future growth and innovation, but drawing on the experiences of experts can help refine India’s trajectory in the 21st century.
India need not only look overseas for inspiration. It can leverage its experience dividend to prepare for 21st-century challenges like artificial intelligence. Dominant AI models today are American or Chinese, but India’s multilingual and context-rich environment demands its own. The technologists who built India’s IT backbone can guide the creation of indigenous AI models to solve everyday Indian problems.
This century could truly be India’s; it has many of the right ingredients but requires a concerted effort by the State, businesses, society, and institutions to harness its workforce for better economic outcomes. Leveraging the old to support the young, and tapping into decades of expertise can help prepare its burgeoning workforce to reach its full potential. With an ageing population already contributing to the economy and to addressing societal issues, they must be better intertwined with India's youth to harness their potential effectively.
(The writer is a Senior Policy Advisor at WisdomCircle)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.