Every age of life, except one, has found its place in India’s wellness industry.
We know how to talk to 20-somethings looking for fitness. We know how to talk to new moms. We know how to sell beauty, weight loss, and fertility, and we’ve even seen brands directly targeting Gen Alpha.
But there is one consumer the wellness industry in India still doesn’t know how to speak clearly about.
She is often in her 50s or 60s, has spent decades making home, career, family, and health decisions, and is now entering a stage of life where her own body, priorities, and ambitions are changing.
She has been the health manager of the Indian family for years. She remembers everyone’s medications, checks on parents, makes doctor’s appointments, arranges meals for the family, and does the emotional labor of caregiving.
But when it comes to one’s own strength, energy, sleep, bones, mood, nutrition or long-term well-being, the wellness industry has been strangely silent.
This silence is not because his needs are small. This is because we have not yet treated him as a consumer worth designing for.
In our conversations, it does not seem appropriate to refer to the over-50 women we meet as ‘old’. They are curious, active, ambitious and deeply invested in living a better life.
One of them is a 63-year-old qualified pharmacist who has been working in the health care and pharmaceutical industry for more than four decades. She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with her family, runs, treks and speaks about her 60s as a decade she wants to fully utilize, not surrender quietly.
His story is powerful because it challenges a perception. Women over 50 are not a senior audience waiting for care. Many of them are asking more pointed questions than younger consumers. What should I do to protect my bones? Why is my energy different? How do I maintain muscle? What do I need to know now about brain health, heart health, liver health, sleep, mood, and nutrition? How do I stay independent longer?
These are not small questions. They are questions about quality of life.
India’s aging story is no longer in the distant future. According to UNFPA’s India Aging Report, the country’s population aged 60 and above is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, and the life expectancy of women aged 60 is higher than that of men. Simply put, many Indian women will spend 20, 25 or even 30 years before they cross their 50s.
This should change our thinking about welfare.
The years after 50 cannot be treated as a small footnote after the so-called prime years of life. For many women, this is when children are growing up, careers are developing, caregiving roles are changing, and there is a renewed desire to invest in themselves. This also happens as health needs become more specific and more individual.
Yet India’s welfare discourse has failed to keep pace with this reality.
For women, in particular, health is often discussed during the reproductive years. Much more attention is given to menstruation, fertility, pregnancy and motherhood. But what happens after that?
Menopause is an example of this difference.
Menopause comes up often in the content we create for women over 50, but not always in obvious ways. Many women don’t start a conversation by saying, “I’m menopausal.” He says that he has severe pain in his knees. They say that they feel so tired that they cannot sleep. He says that his mood seems unfamiliar. They say they forget words, lose concentration, feel heavy in the body or feel less like themselves. And often, the first explanation they give themselves is, “age.” It is done“
This phrase hides a lot of what’s really happening after 50.
Of course, not every symptom is menopause. Not every change is a decrease. And no brand should pretend to have simple answers to complex health changes. But women deserve better information about what may change after 50, including bones, muscles, metabolism, mood, cognition, sleep, and nutrient absorption.
In recent years, menopause and perimenopause have finally begun to enter the mainstream wellness conversation. This is a welcome change. But the dialogue still needs to be broader and better. It can’t stop at hot flashes. It may not reduce symptoms in women. And it doesn’t make midlife seem like the beginning of decline.
A 50+ woman should not be seen only as someone’s mother, wife, grandmother or caregiver. He is also a consumer with his own health goals, concerns, spending power and ambitions for the years to come.
For brands, this requires a change in imagination. Show him up with energy. Talk to him intelligently. Build with specificity for that. Stop assuming she’s not digitally active, not curious, not willing to learn or not ready to invest in herself. She is already doing all this work. The industry is just gaining momentum.
This is the lens from which brands need to build. The point is not to make aging seem like a problem. Its purpose is to explain it better.
India’s over 50 women are entering a phase of life that can be active, independent, expressive and deeply meaningful. They’re asking better questions about their health, their strengths, their daily routines and their future.
The wellness industry now has an option. This may continue to talk them through old stereotypes, or it may create more intelligent, respectful, and helpful conversations around this life stage.
The 50+ woman is one of the most important wellness consumers of the next decade. And if we listen carefully, she could become one of the most powerful voices shaping the state of well-being in India.
(The views expressed are personal) Every age of life except one has found its place in India’s wellness industry.
We know how to talk to 20-somethings looking for fitness. We know how to talk to new moms. We know how to sell beauty, weight loss, and fertility, and we’ve even seen brands targeting Gen Alpha directly.
But there is one consumer the wellness industry in India still doesn’t know how to speak clearly about.
She is often in her 50s or 60s, has spent decades making home, career, family, and health decisions, and is now entering a stage of life where her own body, priorities, and ambitions are changing.
She has been the health manager of the Indian family for years. She remembers everyone’s medications, checks on parents, makes doctor’s appointments, arranges meals for the family, and does the emotional labor of caregiving.
But when it comes to one’s own strength, energy, sleep, bones, mood, nutrition or long-term well-being, the wellness industry has been strangely silent.
This silence is not because his needs are small. This is because we have not yet treated him as a consumer worth designing for.
In our conversations, it does not seem appropriate to refer to the over-50 women we meet as ‘old’. They are curious, active, ambitious and deeply invested in living a better life.
One of them is a 63-year-old qualified pharmacist who has been working in the health care and pharmaceutical industry for more than four decades. She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with her family, runs, treks and speaks about her 60s as a decade she wants to fully utilize, not surrender quietly.
His story is powerful because it challenges a perception. Women over 50 are not a senior audience waiting for care. Many of them are asking more pointed questions than younger consumers. What should I do to protect my bones? Why is my energy different? How do I maintain muscle? What do I need to know now about brain health, heart health, liver health, sleep, mood, and nutrition? How do I stay independent longer?
These are not small questions. They are questions about quality of life.
India’s aging story is no longer in the distant future. According to UNFPA’s India Aging Report, the country’s population aged 60 and above is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, and the life expectancy of women aged 60 is higher than that of men. Simply put, many Indian women will spend 20, 25 or even 30 years before they cross their 50s.
This should change our thinking about welfare.
The years after 50 cannot be treated as a small footnote after the so-called prime years of life. For many women, this is when children are growing up, careers are developing, caregiving roles are changing, and there is a renewed desire to invest in themselves. This also happens as health needs become more specific and more individual.
Yet India’s welfare discourse has failed to keep pace with this reality.
For women, in particular, health is often discussed during the reproductive years. Much more attention is given to menstruation, fertility, pregnancy and motherhood. But what happens after that?
Menopause is an example of this difference.
Menopause comes up often in the content we create for women over 50, but not always in obvious ways. Many women don’t start a conversation by saying, “I’m menopausal.” He says that he has severe pain in his knees. They say that they feel so tired that they cannot sleep. He says that his mood seems unfamiliar. They say they forget words, lose concentration, feel heavy in the body or feel less like themselves. And often, the first explanation they give themselves is, “age.” It is done“
This phrase hides a lot of what’s really happening after 50.
Of course, not every symptom is menopause. Not every change is a decrease. And no brand should pretend to have simple answers to complex health changes. But women deserve better information about what may change after 50, including bones, muscles, metabolism, mood, cognition, sleep, and nutrient absorption.
In recent years, menopause and perimenopause have finally begun to enter the mainstream wellness conversation. This is a welcome change. But the dialogue still needs to be broader and better. It can’t stop at hot flashes. It may not reduce symptoms in women. And it doesn’t make midlife seem like the beginning of decline.
A 50+ woman should not be seen only as someone’s mother, wife, grandmother or caregiver. He is also a consumer with his own health goals, concerns, spending power and ambitions for the years to come.
For brands, this requires a change in imagination. Show him up with energy. Talk to him intelligently. Build with specificity for that. Stop assuming she’s not digitally active, not curious, not willing to learn or not ready to invest in herself. She is already doing all this work. The industry is just gaining momentum.
This is the lens from which brands need to build. The point is not to make aging seem like a problem. Its purpose is to explain it better.
India’s over 50 women are entering a phase of life that can be active, independent, expressive and deeply meaningful. They’re asking better questions about their health, their strengths, their daily routines and their future.
The wellness industry now has an option. This may continue to talk them through old stereotypes, or it may create more intelligent, respectful, and helpful conversations around this life stage.
The 50+ woman is one of the most important wellness consumers of the next decade. And if we listen carefully, she could become one of the most powerful voices shaping the state of well-being in India.
(Views expressed are personal)
This article is written by Mihir Karkare, Co-Founder and CEO, Meru Actives.
