ELDERLY POPULATION GROWING

ELDERLY POPULATION GROWING

The rate at which the elderly population is growing, the State will have to rework its priorities to the segment, P.K.B. Nayar, chairman of Centre for Gerontological Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, says. In the absence of any support from the government at present, social networking at the grassroots level is the only possible thing that will better the status of elderly, he said the drastic fall in the child population (0-14 years) showed that if the trend continued, by 2030, the State’s population of elders would be about 20 per cent, which was more than the child population expected to be around 18 per cent. The fertility rate of the State, pegged at around 1.6, was likely to go below the replacement level. Neighbourhood groups with senior citizen forums are the only solution that society can come up with in the absence of any State support for the elderly. Chronic health problems, loneliness, neglect and abuse were some of the problems affecting the elderly, Dr. Nayar said.

Only an active forum of senior citizens can bring in a measure of reassurance in the lives of the elderly. They can act as a pressure group to make the carers at home to be a little more sympathetic towards the old, he said.With scattered housing and villages and towns merging into each other, the groups of the elderly formed at the grassroots level will have to be more practical in its function. How they can get-together, where to get-together, arranging transportation are all some of the practical problems that can arise, he said.There are no concrete measures so far that will bridge the gap between the State and the elderly. To begin with, at least the elderly can be provided medicines through primary health centres, just like how the government does for women and children for pre-natal and post-natal care. That will at least take care of medical expenses to a certain extent, Dr. Nayar said.Most diseases are chronic and they would require continuous medicines for diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis. Dr. Nayar said even though the proportion of the elderly in the population was the highest in Kerala, it had the lowest old age pension at Rs. 400 a month. Goa and Delhi paid a pension of about Rs. 1,200, he said.

The government needs to take a relook at the demographics of the State as the rate of growth of the elderly are likely to be faster in the coming decades. By the end of the 12th Plan period (2012-17), the proportion of the elderly will be around 15 per cent. It is growing three times faster than the general population, he said. Even as the demographics suggest a study, the government has so far not initiated any study to understand the needs of the elderly. Even with a policy in 2006, the government did not initiate any measure to address the problems of old age. The policy calls for a revision now, though nothing has been done according to what it had stated.

Prof. John Kurakar