ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that older people play a key role in reducing family poverty and in supporting economic growth. It explores what demographic transition means for the urban poor who are deprived in multiple ways by examining its consequences for slum dwellers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The chapter shows how, contrary to expectations, demographic transition in India is deepening the vulnerability of the poor, particularly the elderly poor. It also explores the bias of discourses on changing family values that privilege middle-class preoccupations over the realities of lives lived in poverty. The chapter deals with a discussion of the impact of the changing demographic structure on poverty and vulnerability in India, before analysing its impact on the labour market and on intergenerational relations. The Indian labour market is segmented by age and gender. This segmentation is generated on both the demand side and the supply side.
