Indian Journal of Gerontology 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 138–148 ISSN: 0971–4189, UGC No. 20786 Frailty Pattern among the Elderly Rural Women of India Sayani Das and Shivani Chandel Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, Delhi (India) ABSTRACT Frailty is one of the challenging expressions which have been continuously studied to find out the associated risk factors for the poor health in the geriatric group. The aim of the present study was to examine the pattern of frailty in elderly women of India. 206 elderly Jat women aged 60+ years in rural population of Palwal district of Haryana, (North India) were selected randomly. Frailty was assessed using modified version of Women’s Health and Aging Studies (WHAS) criteria, where we measure this attribute as a complex variable based on five indicators: weakness, slowness, weight loss, exhaustion and low physical activity. It was found out that the overall prevalence of preSfrail (40.8%) among the partici- pants was maximum followed by the frail category (31.1%). The relationship of frailty shows positive correlation with age, major occupation, socioeconomic status, body mass index, self-reported health status, number of falls and chronic diseases. Weakness was the most observed indicators for frailty as 53.4 per cent of the participants have low hand grip strength. On the basis of present findings it may be concluded that frail is significantly associated with ageing process. So, for healthy ageing as well as preventing or delaying more severe clinical consequences, we need to identify all the aspects of frailty. Keywords: Elderly, Frailty, India, Rural, Women