The Hindu Business Line : Old-age worries have come to roost in Kerala: Survey

THE profile of Kerala's population not getting any younger hardly make for news, but concerns arebeing expressed over indications that the worrisome trend may already have come home to roost.

Or, consider this. There are currently 50,000 households in the State where old-age persons (60 years and above) are staying alone, according to the "Need assessment study of the elderly in Kerala" carried out in year 2002 by the Department of Economics and Statistics.

The need to set up a social security net for the aged people, whose numbers would only rise as more and more of their children migrate elsewhere in search for jobs and good living, is feared to create a new headache for the State administration sooner than later.

A top official of the Department of Economics and Statistics told Business Line here that there are an estimated14 lakh Keralites who currently reside abroad, while many times of this number have migrated to destinations outside the State but within the country. Most of these migrants have left their old parents behind to fend for themselves, which is the most worrying outcome of the trend.

The scenario currently obtaining with regard to the old-age persons in the State may be summarised as follows:

There are 26.2 lakh old-age persons, constituting nine per cent of the population.

There are 21.6 lakh houses with old-age persons, which constitute about 32 per cent f the total households.

Out of the 69-lakh households, at least 15 lakh (21.7 per cent) are headed by aged persons.

The district of Pathanamthitta is the most `greyed', with as many as 404 houses out of every 1000 featuring old age person/s, while Wayanad turns out to be the `youngest' of the lot with old-age person/s gracing only 211 houses in the district.

There are 50,000 households where old-age persons stay alone.

There are 2.24 lakh houses (10.35 per cent) in the State having children working abroad. This number is the maximum for the district of Malappuram (19.36 per cent) and the minimum for Idukki (1.74 per cent).

The gender profile of the old-age population is distributed in percentage figures of 47.5 for males and 52.5 for females. The sex ratio being 1106 females for every 1000 males (against the 1058:1000 for the general population).

The percentage number of households with senior citizens in a random of listing of districts are: Thiruvananthapuram (2.29), Kollam (3.27), Rural (2.39), Urban (1.76). The percentage figure for the State as a whole is 2.29.

The percentage number of households with senior citizens with either son or daughter abroad are: Thiruvananthapuram (6.69), Kollam (7.55), Pathanamthitta (14.89), Rural (10.53) and Urban (9.37). The percentage figure for the State is 10.35.

The survey listed the following as the main issues concerning the old-age persons in the State: Lack of acceptance by family members; feeling of loneliness; economic instability; change of lifestyle, forced shift away from native place; lack of involvement in family matters and decision-making; health problems; feeling of insecurity; aversion to the option of depending on others for a living.

More Stories on : Economy | Health | Kerala

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page