Later-life care apps in India: some reflections

Abstract

App-based later-life care has been on the rise in a post-pandemic India. Owing to the pandemic which introduced digital healthcare as the future of public healthcare, several apps have been launched to address the needs of older adults in India. On the one hand, this form of care is being viewed as an important milestone in ageing care as it enables older adults to have their own agency and design their own care network. On the other hand, it mandates digital literacy and promulgates class inequalities as much of India’s population does even own a smartphone. Scholars of gerontology in Western countries have noted the rise of gerotechnology and highlighted how such forms of technologies risk older adults to technological surveillance, assert the ideology of the active aged self and create dependence on these types of digital technologies. Similar to the West, the availability of app-based care for older adults in India needs research attention as it marks a shift in the approach to later-life care. Analysing the forms of app-based later-life care, this paper is an attempt to reflect on the prospects of technology shaping ageing care in India.