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ABSTRACT
The elderly comprise
a much larger proportion of the population today
than ever before. The aging situation should
get due attention not only from the demographic
angle but it also acquires special significance
in a situation when the country swings at different
levels on the continuum of tradition and modernity.
It is essential for tsociety and the government
to realize that the aged population needs not
to be regarded as 'demographic refuse' and given
a congenial atmosphere, they can still contribute
to the family and community combining old values
and new expectations.
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Introduction
Population
ageing is defined as an increase in the proportion
of population, which is elderly. It is a product of
history, individual experiences and social forces
(Morgan and Kunkel, 2001). It is not a separate issue
from social integration, gender advancement, economic
stability or poverty. Until very recently in developing
countries like Bangladesh problems associated with
aging were generally perceived as issues to be considered
and resolved at the level of the individual or family
concerned. Among the Asia-Pacific region, Bangladesh
has experienced a steady decline in mortality accompanied
by modest decline in fertility (NAS, 1981, ESCAP,
1981; Mabud, 1987; Kabir and Uddin, 1987). This process
may have a significant impact on the well-being of
older persons, especially in the less developed regions
where social support for the older person is largely
provided by the immediate family (Hoyert, 1991; Wolf,
1994). Now the number of elderly is rapidly increasing
and the system of joint family has been changing to
prefer a new system of nuclear family of husband-wife
and unmarried children. The process of aging of the
population is creating significant problems and consequently
the issues such as public health measures, and dependency
ratios are required to be addressed by the policy
makers in entirely different perspectives (Hossain,
1998). The aging process might have started in Bangladesh.
Thus, the aging situation should get due attention
not only from the demographic angle but it also acquires
special significance in a situation when the country
swings at different levels in the continuum of tradition
and modernity (Randhawa, 1991).
The elderly comprise a much
larger proportion of the population today than ever
before. The rapid and faster technological progresses
in medical science control the fertility and mortality
rates considerably, and the average composition exhibits
a relatively larger proportion of elderly persons.
Increased age normally brings considerable change
in individual needs. For instance, health conditions
typically decline with advancing age, and this suggests
an escalation in the demand for long-term care (Pollard,
1995; Crimmins, 1997). Again, increasing longevity
can also result in rising medical costs and increasing
demands for health services, since older people are
typically more vulnerable to chronic diseases (de
Jong-Gierveld and van Solinge, 1995; Holliday, 1999).
The old age segment of the population represents an
important subset of the aggregate population and the
elderly as a separate and identifiable group with
their own specific needs has emerged as an issue quite
recently. In view of the ever-increasing importance
being given to ageing, this paper is an attempt to
throw some light on the matter in Bangladesh.
Data Sources
This study is based on secondary
data from the Bangladesh Population Census 1991 and
2001. The data source is officially published by Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics (BBS, 1994 and BBS, 2003) a sponsored
agency of the Bangladesh Government.
Size of the Aged population and Ageing Index
Almost all aspects of human
behaviour and attributes are regulated by one of the
most fundamental characteristics; age structure of
its population. The specific problems and requirements
of a country vary in a large part with age. A population
with a high proportion of old persons may differ considerably
from that of young persons in its productive activities,
consumption patterns, socio-cultural and political
issues and other necessities and problems of life.
Distribution of the age structure of population has
been presented in Table1.
It is clear from Table1 that
during ten years from 1991 to 2001, the size has increased
by nearly 2.0 millions. From the Table we observed
that, the percentage of population in age group 0-14
years has declined over the past three decades but
the percentage of population in the age group 15-59
years has increased till 2001. This may indicate a
decline in fertility levels in the recent past. In
2001 we also observed that 45.46% population is dependent
upon the rest of 54.54% working population,the most
striking feature which increases dependence upon the
rest of the working population. So, these figures
are alarming. A low population percent of change indicates
that fertility decreased in the previous decades.
Also the results show the enormous increase in the
index of aging is due to faster rate of increase in
the old age population accompanied by an equally faster
rate of decline in the child population.
Table
1: Size and percentage distribution of the
aged population
| Year |
Age group |
Total |
Change
in size |
Index
of aging |
|
<15 |
15-59 |
60+ |
Number |
Percent |
| 1974 |
34372000
(48.04)
|
33118000
(46.28)
|
4058000
(5.68)
|
71548000
(100)
|
- -
|
- -
|
11.8
|
| 1981 |
40601000
(46.60)
|
41616000
(47.77)
|
4904000
(5.63)
|
87121000
(100)
|
15573000
|
21.8
|
12.1
|
| 1991 |
47997906
(45.14)
|
52614321
(49.50)
|
5702765
(5.36)
|
106314992
(100)
|
19193992
|
22.0
|
11.9
|
| 2001 |
48716100
(39.33)
|
67544680
(54.54)
|
7590340
(6.13)
|
123851120
(100)
|
17536128
|
16.5
|
15.6
|
Note: Parenthesis indicates the percentage
Some
Aging indicators
Ageing indicators such as
growth of the aged population, percentage of aged,
dependency ratio, ageing index median age, sex ratio
are presented in Table 2.
An increasing trend is observed
for the aged population in Bangladesh. From the difference
of the growth rate of the last two decades, it is
observed that the total growth rate of Bangladesh
increased slightly while the aged growth rate has
become approximately double. Though the percentage
of the elderly population has steadily and slowly
increased and rural percentage is higher than the
urban areas, the elderly and overall population has
grown faster than in the rural areas, mainly because
of increase in the expectation of life. It may be
attributed that the main factors involved in the rapid
urban elderly population growth are natural growth,
rural to urban migration and the changes in the delimitation
and definition of urban areas.
The dependency ratio is a
simple statistics measure of the impact of the age
structure on the economic potential of the population.
Though this percentage is normally used to denote
the burden of the productive population due to age
consideration but in reality in developing countries
like Bangladesh many persons aged above 60 years work
hard to earn their livelihood and many children under
15 years also work to support themselves and their
family members. From Table 2 we observed that the
percentage of aged dependency ratio is increasing
whereas the overall dependency ratio is decreasing
with advancement of time.
The relatively faster increase
in the elderly population will contribute to a higher
dependency ratio of the population in non-productive
age group, whereas the decline in fertility has reduced
overall (youth + elderly) dependency ratio.
The index of aging has increased
for overall Bangladesh during the ten years from 1991
to 2001. The growing number of older persons and reduction
of young population increase the index of aging, reflecting
the change in the age structure composition of the
population of Bangladesh. Among many indicators of
whether a population is aging or not; the median age
is perhaps the strongest one. From Table 2 we observe
that the median age for the elderly population for
Bangladesh in 1991 is almost similar for the year
2001. That means more of the aged population are of
60-69 years of age. In the meantime the overall median
age increased slightly from 1991 to 2001.
Generally, sex ratio i.e.
masculinity ratio among the elderly reveals another
interesting aspect of the situation likely to occur
in Bangladesh. From Table 2 we observed that the sex
ratio of Bangladesh population has been decreased
from 1991 to 2001. This ratio is significantly differing
for urban and rural areas. Whereas the overall sex
ratio for Bangladesh in 1991 is almost similar as
2001, this ratio significantly varies between rural
and urban areas. It is observed from the Table that
the sex ratio of the urban population is always higher
than its rural counterpart. It can be noted that urban
areas of the country are the place of work for many
people who migrated from rural areas to urban areas
in search of work. In the context of Bangladesh the
employment opportunity for the males is wider than
the females. Therefore, people migrating from rural
areas to urban areas for better jobs and work are
mainly the male population. The influxes of females
to urban areas is comparatively less. Moreover, of
those males who work in the urban areas, their spouses
stay in the rural areas because of cost of living
in the urban areas is high, particularly the cost
of accommodation in the urban area is extremely high,
which cannot be met by the low-income groups of urban
people. Thus the urban population is male dominated
with high sex ratio.
Table
2: Some indicators of population aging (click
to view)
Marital status of the elderly population
Marital status is the most
important factor in population dynamics as it affects
fertility tremendously and mortality and migration
to a lesser extent. Also, its effect on other social
and economic characteristics, such as school attendance
and labour force participation is very important in
the late adolescent and young adult age group (Henry,
et al.., 1971). Marital status is an important consideration,
especially for the elderly because of its influence
on their physical and mental stability. The distribution
of the elderly population by marital status is presented
in Table 3.
From Table 3 we observe that
married elderly among the overall population and among
the total aged population increases with time and
as married elderly increases, the widowed decreases.
The percentage of married elderly is quite the same
according to the locality. The Table also shows that
widowed involvess a greater percentage. The main reason
why the widows outnumber widowers may be because of
the fact that men used to be older than women by 5
or more years at the time of their marriage. Generally,
men remarry after the death of their wives, but widows
do not have the similar social circumstances or expectation.
This is an indication of the discrimination against
women and low status given to them in Bangladesh.
The Table also shows that there is a significant increase
in the percentage of the never married elderly among
the overall population as well as among the total
aged population from 1991 to 2001.
Table
3: Percentage distribution of the elderly population
by marital status and locality
| 1991 |
| Locality |
Elderly
among the overall population |
Elderly
among the total aged population |
|
Never
merried
|
Married
|
Widowed
|
Divorce/
separate
|
Never
merried
|
Married
|
Widowed
|
Divorce/
separate
|
| Urban |
.04 |
3.17 |
1.11 |
.014 |
1.00 |
73.14 |
25.62 |
.24 |
| Rural |
.04 |
4.08 |
1.52 |
.011 |
.64 |
72.72 |
27.07 |
.19 |
| Bangladesh |
.04 |
3.88 |
1.44 |
.011 |
.69 |
72.26 |
26.85 |
.20 |
| 2001 |
| Urban |
.26 |
3.45 |
1.03 |
.015 |
5.49 |
72.54 |
21.65 |
.32 |
| Rural |
.30 |
4.73 |
1.49 |
.016 |
4.60 |
72.36 |
22.80 |
.24 |
| Bangladesh |
.29 |
4.44 |
1.38 |
.015 |
4.76 |
72.39 |
22.59 |
.25 |
Literacy,
work status and household types of the elderly population
Education is the backbone
of a nation. Higher literacy rates indicate the higher
level of development. So the data on literacy levels
and trends are of crucial significance to the policy
makers, researchers and planners for socio-economic
and educational planning of a country. Again in many
countries of the less developed regions, there are
large concentrations of older workers in agriculture
and other sectors of the economy (notably the informal
sector) who have little or no social security coverage
(International Labour Office, 2000). The status of
literacy and work participation rates for the elderly
population (60+) are presented in Table 4.
There is an increase in literacy
in the year 2001 than 1991. Literacy rates in urban
areas are higher than that of rural areas in both
years. It is observed from Table 4, that illiteracy
in rural areas is almost double that of urban areas.
A remarkable gap between urban and rural areas is
found for females. A wide difference between males
and females in literacy rates was found in both the
census years 1991 & 2001. Gender inequality is
greatly pronounced in this respect, as most males
are literate while the females are mostly illiterate.
The low percentage of literacy in Bangladesh is a
well-known phenomenon. It is hoped that the gap between
the urban and rural adult literacy level will gradually
decrease over time and the gender difference will
also become narrower.
The percentage of working
aged among the total aged population is decreasing
a little. The proportion of elderly workers in rural
areas is greater than other areas in both years. It
is noticed that the majority of the elderly engage
in agriculture. Although the decline in labour force
participation means fewer jobs in the future, it also
means that a proportion of the elderly people are
not working. About 19.32% of male elderly and 29.86%
of female elderly in the rural areas were not working
in 2001. This rate is quite high in urban areas. It
is noticeable that if this situation prevails then
pressure will increasingly fall on the limited resources
to provide good services for this portion of the population.
Therefore, planning in respect of future employment
opportunities for the elderly is of urgent need.
The socio-economic development
of a country has direct bearing on the housing condition
of people and the consumption of households. The care
and support provided to parents is usually in the
form of shared housing, food and other necessities
and less often in the form of direct transfer of income
(Kabir,1999; Knodel and Debavalya, 1992). Households
have been classified into three categories namely
- dwelling, institutional and other. Dwelling households
are those which are mainly used for residential purposes.
Hostel, hospitals, clinics, jails, barracks or orphanages
where a person or a group of persons spent census
night are considered as institutional households and
households other than dwelling and institutional households
are considered as 'other households'. According to
the type of classification how many percentage of
elderly population live in those categories by sex
and locality is presented in Table 4.
The percentage of the elderly
who are living in dwelling places is not significantly
different by sex and locality, and that pattern is
quite similar in both the years. We also have observed
that the percentage of male elderly in "Institutions"
is more than double the percentage of the female population
in urban areas in both censuses. Rural to urban migration
for better facilities, such as education, employment
etc. may be responsible for that.
Table
4: Percentage distribution of the elderly by
educational status, work status, household types,
sex and locality. (Click
here to view)
Concluding Remarks
The trend in the size and
growth of the elderly population in Bangladesh reveals
that ageing will become a major social challenge in
the future when considerable resources will need to
be directed towards the support, care and treatment
of the elderly. The process of aging in Bangladesh
now is taking place at a time when the pattern of
life is changing, kinship bonds are weakening and
family composition is undergoing a rapid transformation.
But with their rapid increase and under the condition
of changing family pattern, the elderly population
already seems to be experiencing difficulties. Most
of the elderly people of Bangladesh live in rural
areas where health and recreational facilities are
very limited. The majority of them are illiterate;
economic facilities and job opportunities are limited.
More than half of the elderly women are widowed, divorced
or single. In all these respects elderly women are
more disadvantaged than elderly men. A large proportion
of elderly men are still in the labour force both
in rural and urban areas. But job opportunities are
very limited in the country. It is difficult for them
to get jobs commensurate with their ages (Abedin,
1996).
In view of the above findings,
it is essential for society and the government to
realize that the aged population needs not to be regarded
as 'demographic refuse'. Since this segment of the
population will continue to increase gradually in
future in Bangladesh, given a congenial atmosphere,
they can still contribute to the family and community
combining old values and new expectations.
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