Sri Lanka has the highest proportion of elderly in the population across South Asia as well as a sprawling informal economy, both of which will be severely hit if Covid-19 is not brought rapidly under control. In 2012—eight years ago—over 2.5mn people, or 12.4 percent of the country’s population, were over the age of 60, [...]

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Lanka’s elderly population, informal economy more vulnerable to Covid-19

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Sri Lanka has the highest proportion of elderly in the population across South Asia as well as a sprawling informal economy, both of which will be severely hit if Covid-19 is not brought rapidly under control.

In 2012—eight years ago—over 2.5mn people, or 12.4 percent of the country’s population, were over the age of 60, according to a 2017 UNFPA report called ‘Ageing Population of Sri Lanka: Emerging issues, needs and policy implications’. Based on the 2012 Census of Population and Housing, it expected this number to rise to 14 percent in 2017.

As in many South Asian countries, Sri Lanka’s rural sector dominated both total and ageing population. Around 77 percent—or three in every four aged persons—lived in the rural sector. And apart from old-aged physical and mental impairments, around 45 percent of those aged 60 or over have non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular ailments, cancers, diabetes, arthritis, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“In Sri Lanka, social welfare and health schemes are not adequate to address health care needs of older population of the country,” the report warned.

“The main challenges are how existing mechanisms can effectively be responded to meet the rising health expenditure, disease burden and other services needs of the elderly.”

Analysis released this week of deaths in Italy, which has now lost more people to Covid-19 than China, shows the median age of the deceased to be 80. The majority of victims are male. And nearly all of them were already suffering from serious health problems including cancer, when the coronavirus infection was detected, states the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service.

Even among the sick, the number of deaths is higher for those over 80. The fatality rate among those aged under 30 is currently zero, ISS said. For under-40s, it’s 0.3 percent.

The rate rises “sharply” for over-70s. Women made up 25.8 percent of the deceased and 38 percent of patients overall.

The data also showed that almost 25 percent of all infected patients were between the ages of 19 and 50.

The scale of Sri Lanka’s informal economy, meanwhile, is vast, says the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ‘Decent Work Country Programme 2018-2022’. In 2016, it contributed to 60.2 percent of total employment. Nearly 50 percent of those working in the informal economy are “own account workers” (those working on their own account or with one or more partners, holding the type of jobs defined as self-employment).

Access to social protection schemes and rights of workers in the informal sector are not secure. And recent environmental disasters such as floods and landslides caused tremendous damages and losses in the informal sector.

The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector accounts for 52 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and contributes to 45 percent of the employment in Sri Lanka. It will also be badly affected.

A 2016 ‘Post-Disaster Needs Assessment’ revealed that SMEs are particularly vulnerable to disasters, and are more likely to suffer mid- and long-term impacts, including disruptions in their value chains.

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