50% of elderly in state are working under compulsion

The report released yesterday revealed that only 20% of the elderly persons are working out of choice

About half of the elderly persons in the state are forced to work in their old age due to economic compulsions, according to a report on 'The Status of Elderly in Odisha' prepared by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The report released yesterday revealed that only 20 per cent of the elderly persons are working out of choice.

Odisha has about 3.98 million people, who are aged 60 years and above. They constitute 9.5 per cent of the total population against the national average of 8.5 per cent. Around 86 per cent of the elderly live in rural areas.
 

The elderly population will increase to 6.27 million by 2016 and will comprise of 13.8 per cent the total population, says the report.

A comprehensive report was published by UNFPA covering seven states having a higher proportion of elderly people. Odisha apart, the other states covered are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal.

The UNFPA report, the first of its kind, was released by Usha Devi, state minister for Women and Child Development, Planning and Coordination at an event here. Also present were Frederika Meijer, UNFPA representative for India and Bhutan, Nalinikanta Das, special secretary, department of Health and Family Welfare, Sanjay Kumar, National Programme Officer, UNFPA, India and Deepa Prasad, state programme coordinator, UNFPA.

The observation made on the coverage of national pension scheme in the state is encouraging. The coverage is one of the highest among the states where the study was conducted.

In the BPL (below poverty line) category, around 60 per cent of the elderly women were covered under widow pension while 44 per cent of the elderly men received old age pension.

On the health front, around half of the elderly residing in Odisha are suffering from chronic morbidity, such as arthritis and hypertension. Diabetes and heart ailments are more common among the urban elderly.

About 10 per cent in the above 60 years group have experienced abuse with elderly women constituting the largest chunk among them. Sadly most of the abuse is inflicted by family members particularly the sons, the report stated.

The study in Odisha is part of a larger initiative for "Building Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India (BKPAI)" undertaken by UNFPA India, in collaboration with three premier institutions - Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), Delhi and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.