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More Lankan women are becoming dependent in old age, a survey finds
Around 50% of women are dependent on the government, despite their ability to work hard and earn an income (file pic)
I go begging and get around 1,500 rupees a day; with that, I buy things and cook, and once the money finishes, I beg again. No one invites us for anything, as we are old and poor. We must buy medicine, too, but we don’t buy it all at once as we don’t have the money.”
This is the story of 62-year-old Muhiya from Puttalam. She had no access to education and got married to a fisherman when she was 20. She has four children, none of whom supports her or her husband anymore. Muhiya is dependent on the money she receives from begging and Samurdhi for her and her husband’s survival.
The Centre for Social Concerns recently did an assessment on the ‘status of older women’ under the Asia Foundation’s Women’s Voice and Leadership Project. The assessment brought to light the increasing feminisation of ageing in Sri Lanka and its implications and key issues.
It focused particularly on these three areas: the socio-political and economic situation of older women and vulnerable men, the disparities in the policies and practices relating to the rights of older people, and the key issues surrounding the feminisation of the ageing population.
Using a sample of 351 respondents, of which 299 were women, the report is based on 10 districts covering rural, urban, plantation, fishing, agricultural, and informal sector communities. The districts covered were Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Colombo, Galle, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kandy, Mullaitivu, Nuwara Eliya, and Puttalam.
A World Bank report published in October 2021 states that the over-60 age category makes up 12.3% of Sri Lanka’s population. This makes Sri Lanka the country with the highest proportion of older adults in South Asia. According to the Asian Development Bank, “like many other social development indicators, Sri Lanka is ahead of other South Asian countries in demographic transition as it is ageing relatively faster.”
The ‘Sri Lanka Population aged 60+ years, 1950–2021′ report states that the female life expectancy is 80.4 years while the male life expectancy is 73.8 years.
The status of older women assessment states that the rationale for this survey was ‘prompted due to the perceived level of dependency of the older population on the younger generation.’ According to this report, the revision of the retirement age from 65 to 60 years will lead to an increase in dependency in the future.
The current socio-economic and political changes have left the older population vulnerable, with limited access to health care worsened by the shortage of medicine, soaring prices of essential commodities (food and medicine), and increasing costs of utilities.
The assessment states that the increasing feminisation of the elderly population should be a concern for all women’s rights’ organisations.
“Older women are more visible due to their longer life expectancy than men, especially in the old-old (80+) age group, and face social and structural barriers as women.” It was found that gender relations impact the entire life cycle and influence access to resources and opportunities.
Of the 299 women, 51 had never attended school, while 110 had only attended below grade 5. This is an indication that 54% of the older women in the study had little opportunity for education. It was also found that with the increase in age, opportunities decreased, as around 75% of those over 80 years of age had only studied up to grade 5 or had no schooling. Older women with the least access to education (those who have not attended school and those who have attended up to grade 5) are plantation Tamils with 93% and Muslims with 80%.
Among older males with the least access to education, 33% were Sinhalese, while 26% were Tamil. Plantation Tamils and Muslim males had not completed either GCE O/L or A/L.
The research also found that 49% of the respondents were self-employed. Agriculture had the highest self-employment, with 26% women and 21% men. Sewing and knitting had the second highest employment rate for women, at 6.4%. Older men were mostly employed in service provision and fishing, making up 9.6% and 7.7%, respectively.
Of the participants in this study, 51.5% of women and 34.6% of men receive Samurdhi benefits. Of the women receiving Samurdhi benefits, 25.8% are also recipients of the elders’ allowance. “It indicates that around 50% of women are dependent on the government, despite their ability to work hard and earn an income. It also denoted that if there was a just distribution of resources from the beginning of their lives, such dependencies would not have occurred,” the report states.
In terms of asset transfers, while men held property, there was a significant gap in this being transferred to their wives.
While nearly 34% of men own property, only 8.5% have transferred it in the name of their wives. Additionally, nearly 17% of men hold cash and other investments, of which only 5% are left to their wives. While almost 24% of the families of the respondent women hold property, only almost 3% have been transferred to them.
“This is an indication of how women in general are disregarded in the transfer of assets and its implication during their elder years,” states the assessment.
A few of the recommendations presented to enhance the lives of older people are as follows:
- Policies and programmes should be put in place to rectify the shortcomings in the government’s fulfilment of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
- Requesting the government to consider an old age security allowance for specified age layers of older persons, targeted at low-income social groups, as this would help minimise significant economic incapacities.
- The Health Ministry should make healthcare more accessible in difficult-to-reach areas. The ministry should also consider challenges to mobility and specifically develop service models to increase access at the community level (similar to maternal and child care).
The report also highlights the importance of raising awareness about dementia.
It is worth noting that, “Despite having a rapidly ageing population, Sri Lanka has made limited preparations to face this reality.” Thus, a policy that promotes active ageing would be extremely beneficial to Sri Lanka in dealing with the implications of an ageing population.
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