Elderly Bangladesh: information
Elderly in Bangladesh:
By Sabya van Elswijk,
To understand more about being old and living in Bangladesh, we took some parts of the Unnayan Onneshan Policy Brief On Present Social Context and Elderly Population in Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, some programmes are made for the welfare of the elderly people. The programmes are:
4.1. Pension: There is an opportunity of retirement incentives for the Government employees in Bangladesh, constitutes only a negligible fraction of the total population (estimated as about 1.2 million in 2007). But majority of the labour force in Bangladesh is still in rural areas and most of the workers employees of the non government industries/organizations still not eligible for pensions.
4.2. Old Age Allowance Program: The most basic and innovative policy for the poor older people in Bangladesh, the ‘Old Age Allowance Program (Boyoshko Bhata Karmashuchi) was formulated in Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002). The goal of this policy is in accord with the goal of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) as well as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) where sustainable improvement in health, nutrition and family welfare status of the people, particularly of the poor and vulnerable groups including women, child and the elderly were addressed along with their economic and social emancipation. Initially Taka 125 million was allocated for this scheme. 10 elderly poor, of whom at least 5 should be women of each ward of a union throughout the country were sanctioned a monthly allowance of Taka 100 each. Later the coverage and amount of money were increased in the successive fiscal policy of the successive governments. But the selection process of the elderly for the old age allowance is not so clear yet as expect. Lack of accountability, proper monitoring system also the transparency and nepotism of the local government authority, as well as political reasons make it difficult to proper implementation of this process. It also observed that, a big amount of money as such allowance remained unspent because of weakness and inefficiency in management.
Conclusion
Elderly populations are the asset of any nation. They have experience, wisdom and knowledge which can be used for the national reconstruction. It is the responsibility of everyone to take care of our national asset and utilized their experience. Elderly is a serious reality and last step of our life cycle. We become older if we live long. If we older, we want to live in peace and harmony. Let the nation come forward for the wellbeing of our respected senior citizen of Bangladesh.
