A project on ageism and age norms among older adults in urban India in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Economic Change. Image Collaboration in healthy ageing Divya Sivaramakrishnan shares her involvement with the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC). 2021-2030 has been declared the decade of healthy ageing by the World Health Organisation. Lower-Middle Income Countries like India are charged with the urgent task of responding to the shift from a younger to an older age structure. How did this collaboration begin? "I got in touch with the ISEC team to check if they would like to collaborate on a project in November 2020. We applied for the UKRI partnership Fund, and were successful in securing funding to organise an international event relating to ageing in India. Due to Covid, the 'Conversations on Ageing' event was finally conducted in September 2021, where we brought together researchers from India and UK, and third sector organisations, policy makers and services working on healthy ageing in India. The event included talks from researchers, policy makers and charity and volunteer organisations- it was well attended (60 participants) and received great feedback. The team has continued to work on several projects since then." What’s the current status or progress? "Since the Conversations on Ageing event, the team has continued to work on a project on Ageism and Age norms among older adults in urban India. We have completed data collection for this project and are in the process of analysis. The ISEC team will be presenting this project at the IIPS NATIONAL SEMINAR 2023, Bengaluru. We also secured the CAHSS KEI grant (University of Edinburgh) to conduct a project called “Mapping to Stories: Highlighting successes and challenges in healthy ageing and charting the way forward”. The ISEC team is working with Dr Louise Bladwin (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) and Jeremy Hilton ( Cranfield University, UK), to take a systems thinking approach to healthy ageing in India. We will also be procuring stories from stakeholder in India to describe challenges and successes in promoting healthy ageing in India. We have an artist on the project to capture the outputs visually." What is your dream for the future of this collaborative partnership? "The dream is continue our collaboration and research to promote healthy ageing in India. We have initiated the creation of a network spanning stakeholders interested in this topic from India and UK (Coversations on Ageing Network), and we would like to grow this network. We also plan to develop funding applications together to enable us to conduct a long term research project to develop programmes to support heathy ageing in India." What are the key benefits from this joint engagement? "The key benefits are knowledge sharing between teams. I have learnt a lot from these collaborations. The India team are experts in ageing and bring a lot of knowledge relating to demographic, cultural aspects of ageing in India. They also have connections with policy makers, other institutes and organisations which are invaluable. It is an interdisciplinary team, and each member brings unique skill sets and experience (qualitative, epidemiology, statistical, poverty, ageing, intervention development, public health )." We also enjoy working with each other and are passionate about the topic of healthy ageing, and we hope to make an impactful contribution to this field." What are the persisting challenges that you faced in this collaboration? "Time is the main challenge. All members of the team are very busy with teaching and other responsibilities. Finding time to complete analysis and draft funding applications is challenging. For the next funding application, we plan to cost in research assistants and project managers in both countries who would be dedicated to the project." What support has been provided to this partnership? "The projects were funded by the UKRI Partnership fund and CAHSS KEI grant, both deployed by the University of Edinburgh. The University has also provided support with setting up contracts and payment arrangements with the ISEC team. Several University members supported the Conversation on Ageing event and provided guidance and helped publicise it. Academics such as Dr Shari Sabeti spoke at the event and everyone benefitted from the interdisciplinary themes." Conversations on Ageing Network Continue to read further interesting stories from our partners in India and find out more about the Network. Visit the Conversations on Ageing Network website Discover more View Divya Sivaramakrishnan's academic profile Visit the Institute for Social and Economic Change's website Find out more about the UKRI Partnership Fund This article was published on 2024-06-24
