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International Elders Day fell on October 1
Don’t forget the old
Humankind is ageing. Global society is already older than ever before. It is estimated that globally approximately one million persons cross the age of 60 every month. Average life expectancy has increased by 20 years since 1950, and is expected to rise another 10 years by mid-century.

This demographic achievement means that the number of older people will increase from about 600 million in 2000, to almost 2000 million by 2050. The increase will be most marked in developing countries where the older population is expected to quadruple during the next 50 years.

Sri Lanka, over the next 25 years will undergo a dramatic transformation as the proportion of the elderly population increases. Having achieved fewer infant deaths, lower fertility rates and higher life expectancy, Sri Lanka by 2025 will probably have the third oldest population in Asia. Experts say that Sri Lanka is experiencing a faster ageing of its population than any other country in the world. While demographic ageing is a relatively new phenomenon in Asian countries, its onset in Sri Lanka will be more rapid than anywhere in the world.

It is generally agreed that government intervention alone will not be able to deal with all the issues accompanying Sri Lanka's ageing issue. It must be managed by all involved through the concerted efforts of the government and civil society: NGOs, communities and families.

In response to this, the NGO Forum on Ageing (NFOA) was formed in 1999 - the year when Sri Lanka along with other countries of the world observed the United Nations International Year of Older Persons (IYOP). The NFOA was formed by a small group interested in the issue of population ageing who felt that the promotion of the activities, safety and wellbeing of the elderly should be an essential part of an integrated and concerted effort.

The NFOA is a consortium of NGOs working in the field of population ageing. However, there are also individual members. The NFOA is registered with the National Secretariat on Elders of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

Older people are consistently among the poorest and material security therefore becomes one of the greatest preoccupations of old age. Poverty and exclusion remain the greatest threats to their wellbeing. Many Sri Lankans, while not destitute, are still quite poor and vulnerable. Most of the poor live in rural areas. Old age is associated with problems of poor diet, ill health, inadequate housing and lack of easy access to facilities such as transport, marketing, insurance and recreation to mention just a few.

Ageing is an increasingly female experience because women more than men have to cope with ageing. In Sri Lanka where 52% of the population is female and because life expectancy for women exceeds that of males, the number of aged females exceeds that of males. Life expectancy in Sir Lanka, currently around 76 years for females and 72 years for male, is expected to be above 75 for males and 80 for females by 2025. Because most women marry men older than themselves and because women generally live longer than men, a much higher proportion of women than men are widowed.

The NFOA has begun initiating media programmes aimed at educating the general public on the ageing process. One project assists older persons to obtain their Senior Citizens cards, which are issued by the Department of Social Services for persons over 65 years of age. The NFOA would like to see the Government adding to the facilities the senior citizens card affords such as free or reduced transport rates.

The NFOA also appeals to the private sector to participate in corporate social responsibility by offering, for example, reduced prices for cardholders at supermarket chains especially for essential food items and pharmaceutical items. Generally all over the world, the dependency of older persons on their children and other family members is recognized and accepted. However, whereas in developed countries, institutions provide much of the care, in developing countries like Sri Lanka the old still mostly rely on living with their families.

In urban and rural Sri Lanka, older persons have been required to assume responsibility for children because their parents go out to work. Many young mothers go to the Middle East and South-east Asia as domestic aides and the task of bringing up their children falls on the shoulders of their ageing parents. In families with higher income, children tend to go abroad for education and employment leaving their elderly parents lonely and without systematic care.

Inter-generational links between the old and the young are extremely important. The Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association, one of the associate members of the NFOA has been successfully involved in a project for the past five years whereby young Girl Guides maintain close links with older persons in their immediate family and the community. More recently, the Girl Guides were asked to compile information on ageing in a scrap book competition as a learning process. These projects have made the young people more aware of the problems faced by the elderly and also made the young more sensitive to the needs of older persons.

The NFOA would like to encourage more individual and associate members to join the Forum so that the problems facing older persons in Sri Lanka could be tackled effectively.

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