Between them, the middle-class Bangalore couple have 64 years of service in public sector firms. You would think they would have provided themselves lifelong financial security.

But today, several years after retirement, Krishna Prasad, 66, and his wife Sridevi, 61, lined up at a seniors’ job fair, fresh CVs in hand. In near identical language, the two wrote in their resumes, “Hailing from a respectable and decent family”.

It was a poignant scene portraying a changing India where the economic downturn has intersected with a rapidly altering social landscape, sending hundreds of senior citizens scurrying out in search of financial security.

The job fair puts the focus on India’s elderly, a neglected demographic in a country overwhelmingly dominated by young people. Every second Indian in a country of 1.2 billion people is 25 years or younger.

A minuscule newspaper ad a few days ago announced “Jobs60+”, a job fair conceived by the Bangalore-based eldercare NGO Nightingales Medical Trust. A hundred or so people were expected to show up.

This morning, the Nightingales’ downtown office was overwhelmed by 600 applicants. The huge rush halted traffic as more seniors blockaded the entrance, heckling and shouting to be allowed in.

Prasad and Sridevi, the public sector retirees who arrived early at the fair, are not badly off. They own their home and have rent coming in. But with loans to pay off, they are left with less than Rs 15,000 to manage the household.

The couple’s tale shares a common skein with the lives of many elderly middle-class couples in urban India.

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