evidence: India has no population-wide mechanisms of social security. Given this scenario, Indians have to work as long as possible in order to support themselves (Mathew and Rajan, 2008). Employer insurance and pension schemes are available only to as low as 9% of rural males and 41.9% of urban males who are in the formal sector; among females, the figures are lower still (3.9% rural, 38.5% urban) (Rajan and Aiyar, 2008). The rest of the workforce comprises casual and self-employed workers who are not entitled to formal retirement benefits and, in order to afford healthcare in their early years, face the paradoxical challenges of remaining both healthy and employed in old age. Those in the formal sector may experience a halving of their incomes, which, in the face of rising inflation, leaves smaller proportions of income that may be allocated to health (Mathew and Rajan, 2008). As a result, a considerable proportion of the elderly are employed. An analysis of the Worker Population Ratios (WPRs) depicts that 56.79% of elderly males and 16.32% of elderly females were engaged in employment (proportions are higher in rural areas) (Mathew and Rajan, 2008).