A Thought for the Elderly

The International News

December 8, 2008

Pakistan

The plan in Islamabad to usher in a Senior Citizens Welfare Bill is good news. The federal minister for social welfare has stated that the government hopes to establish an institutionalized support system for older people. It has recently been discussing their needs with several international organizations conducting workshops in the country. A senior citizens council is to be set up to help identify needs and priorities. We must hope the ministry’s efforts result in measures that can ease life for an especially vulnerable group of citizens in increasingly hostile times. Senior citizens, according to official data, form nearly six per cent of the population, but are largely unprotected. Health benefits and similar welfare schemes available in other countries do not exist. While, traditionally speaking, the aged have a place of honour in family life in South Asia, realistically speaking this is no longer the case. While no serious research has been carried out, anecdotal evidence suggest more and more old people are being abandoned – by families unable to care for them. Accounts of even the more well-to-do leaving elderly parents at the few homes that exist or at medical facilities come in from every city. These issues of a changing society too need to be considered as new legislation is considered to protect senior citizens – a group that till now has been neglected by decision makers. One must hope the proposed new law will change this situation and identify how the state can act to support the aged.  

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