India’s demographic dividend today – 40% of its population under 18 years – is set to become a healthcare burden over the next few decades as the country ages. By 2050, India’s population older than 60 years will cross 300 million by 2050, trebling from 104 million in 2011, according to a UN Population Fund report.

FactorDaily photojournalist and video producer Rajesh Subramanian reports from Dalasanur village in Srinivasapura taluk of Kolar district in Karnataka of a project that aims to map 10,000 Indians as they age. Data on biological and psychological changes in the elderly, gene profiles, and other data will be collected over the next few decades in a multi-generational study called Srinivasapura Ageing Senescence and Cognition (SANSCOG).

The expectation is that the massive data pool will help data scientists create models, predictors, and algorithms. This, in turn, will potentially help pharma companies take a crack at mental conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, among others, for which drugs have not been developed despite nearly a 100 years of research. Also benefitting from the open data project will be insurance and healthcare companies.

Here are 11 of Subramanian’s best pictures from a four-hour reporting assignment on Monday, November 20 in Kolar.

Gumreddypura arrives for the first interactive session of the Srinivasapura Ageing Senescence and Cognition (SANSCOG) project at the Dalasanur village primary school on Monday, November 20. Accompanying him is his grandson. ​

The classroom in the Dalasanur primary school where the first SANSCOG training session took place.

Inside the classroom, SANSCOG volunteers Shivananda and Shivakumar prepare for the session readying the blackboard for the presentation.

Health volunteer Anu K N in a quick huddle with other volunteers before the session begins. Photo : Rajesh Subramanian

Villager Rama Reddy moves to the window to go over a one-pager on the SANSCOG project and what its goals are.

An elderly attendee with a neatly-folded leaflet waits for the presentation to start.

Anu K N, the health volunteer, starts her presentation. With her roots in Kerala, she apologises in advance that her Kannada may not be the best of the day.

The video story that most in the audience empathised with. It was a story of an elderly man with dementia symptoms forgetting to bill an item in a department store and walking out. His son was embarrassed when the father was caught by security guards.

Volunteer Shivananda distributing registration forms to the villagers at the end of the session.

Dalasanur villagers Sheshamma (left) and Naramma coming out of the classroom after the introductory session.

The session over, Suresh, the caterer engaged for the Monday session, serves a mid-morning meal of vegetable pulao and vadas. Photo : Rajesh Subramanian

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