Ageing gracefully... some challenges?

Sri Lanka’s latest household income and expenditure survey for 2009/2010 shows that poverty in Sri Lanka has declined significantly during the past decade. However, while recent social and economic development in the country has addressed some challenges in the battle against poverty, such development also creates new challenges, one of which arises from the ageing of Sri Lanka’s population.

According to recent population projections (Indrajit de Silva, 2007), the share of those over 60 years will rise to 16% by 2020. In addition, Sri Lanka’s population is expected to start declining by 2030, so that by 2050, the population over 60 years will nearly double to 29%.

These increasing numbers of the elderly will become economically vulnerable, with family sizes shrinking and a smaller share of economically active younger people available to look after the needs of the elderly in our society over time.

Ageing related poverty arises from society being unable to bear the costs of supporting basic physical needs of the elderly – food, clothing, shelter, health, transport, as well as emotional and mental support through companionship and recreation. Hence, the threat of many more elderly sliding into poverty in Sri Lanka over the next few decades is very real.

Ageing-related poverty could result in new burdens on Sri Lanka’s society due to outcomes such as:

• Increasing demand for elderly health care to meet sickness resulting from
• poor nutrition – due to lack of income or means to prepare meals
• poor housing conditions – resulting in respiratory infections due to damp or accidents due to physical hazards
• poor medication – due to inability to meet costs of required medicines
• Increasing demand for cost-effective housing, meals, transport and recreation for the elderly which may need to be subsidised by the State through taxes.
• Increasing demand for companionship and emotional caring of elderly with no family support, which may required training and employment of social workers by the State

Against this background, policy makers need to think about ageing-related poverty issues in Sri Lanka and prepare for the future. Some questions that come to mind are:

• What preventive long-term measures can be taken at national policy level to reduce the burden of ageing-related poverty on society as a whole?
• What can communities do to minimise ageing related poverty?
• What can private initiative do to insure against ageing-related poverty?
• What can research organisations do for advocacy on related issues?
• How do other countries with a similar ageing structure deal with these issues?

(This issue will also be discussed at the CEPA 10th anniversary Research Colloquium. Please visit the website for more information www.cepa.lk/colloquium.)