Shawdesh Desk:

Many elderly people are engaged in various types of hard work in capital Dhaka and other parts of the country for earning livelihood, contributing to the national economy.

Bangladesh has gone a long way towards socioeconomic development due to effective decisions and implementation by the government and hard works of the citizens including elderly one.

The senior people are no more burdens for the society, rather many of them are assets working hard to meet their basic demand without being dependant on others.

Against the backdrop, economic experts advocated for widening Social Safety Net (SSN) and other supports of the government to hike standard of living of the elderly people most of whom are struggling to survive.

Talking to Daily Sun, Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said “They (elderly people) are obviously contributing to the labour market and national economy. They are giving various kinds of services. Some of them are self-employed. But their earning is too poor to survive. So, the government support is needed to supplement their income.”

Citizens above 60 or 65 years are entitled to state support under the Social Safety Net, he said, adding that some of the old persons are unemployed and some others have little income.

“The government has a responsibility to supplement and complement their income through various support measures which include Social Safety Net, cash support, OMS, ration and direct food support.”

According to a report of HelpAge, 13 million plus people in Bangladesh were aged over 60 which accounted for 8 percent of the country’s total population as of 2019. The number of elderly people will be 21.9 percent by 2050 meaning that around one fifth populations will be elderly.

Many elderly people are presumably engaged in hard work following uncourteous behaviour of the family members towards them.

National Aging Resource Center on Elderly Abuse (NARCEA) reported that senior citizens are exposed to 37.2pc most frequent types of elder abuse,  26.3pc physical abuse, 20pc financial or material exploitation and 11pc emotional abuse.

“Our society holds some myths and prejudices towards the aging, which include ‘rocking chair syndrome’ where the assumption is that an old person’s daily routine consists of napping in their rocking chairs; unproductive, due to lack of participation in the labor market, sick, dependent and generally useless,” a research article of Science Alert says.

“… a myth prevails on the society that the older people get much but do nothing is also socially constructed. But elder people in Bangladeshi family life contribute much by their active involvement in child care and domestic work. Data from various researches revealed that older people provide valuable contributions to well-being and livelihood of the family by taking responsibility for house hold activities, freeing younger family members to seek work outside the home,” it added.

A statistics of 1994 shows that 77pc elderly people lacked income to meet basic needs and 71.4pc were dependent on siblings for livelihood.

Following indifference of the relatives and advancement of work opportunities, the situation has changed with plenty of elderly people are engaged hard works although feedbacks are poor.

Quoting World Bank, a data of Trading Economics said Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh stood at 324.24 billion US dollars in 2020.

The contribution of elderly people across the country to the GDP is significant but unsung.

According to UN Population Projection, share of older people will reach around 20pc by 2050 and absolute number would become more than 40 million.

ILO report says the government’s concern for older people until 1990 was confined to public sector employees who represented around 5pc of the labour force and 1pc of the older people.

Under the Old Age Allowance, monthly assistance is given to poor elderly across the country from the national budget.

The number of beneficiaries has increased from 0.4 to 2.75 million, allowance increased from Tk 100 to Tk 300 per month and budgetary allocation shot from 485 to 8,910 million.

Ministry of Social Welfare executes the programme while ministerial Committee headed by the Finance Minister oversees it.

The elderly people having annual income lower than Tk 3000, physically unable, mentally handicapped, people with no assets, land or home, widowed, widower, divorced, separated, deserted by family and childless and those spend all income for buying food get the allowance.

However, elderly persons or their families enjoy government pension, destitute women having VGD card or other government grants/assistance on regular basis, people receiving regular financial assistance/grants from NGOs, people working as a day labourers/domestic workers or vagrants cannot avail themselves of the opportunity.

Bangladesh government is set to introduce a universal pension scheme (UPS) from the 2022-23 fiscal year. As per condition, the people not exceeding 50 years will be able to participate in the pension scheme by paying a certain amount of premium per month upto 60 years. Later, they will be enjoying the pension unto death.

However, the people above 50 years will not be considered for UPS.

Experts say the elderly people having zero or inadequate earning irrespective of their work status should be put under considerable amount of allowance, pension and insurance.

Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of CPD, said people of 60 and above belong to retired class and they are not supposed to work hard for earning livelihood.

The government should bring all such elderly people under the old-age pension scheme and insurance programmes which persist in many other countries of the world.