While targeting poverty in all forms, don’t forget the elderly

A rickshaw driver sleeps beside covered handcarts early morning in Allahabad. (Photo: AP)

The first goal of the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty by 2030, adopted by UN member countries in 2015, comes to forefront once again on October 17 this year when the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed with the theme “Moving from humiliation and exclusion to participation: Ending poverty in all its forms”. It is an opportunity to understand the effort and struggle of all people living in poverty, women, older people, those marginalised and disadvantaged and their fight to make their concerns heard, to stop violation of their rights. This struggle has its roots almost 30 years back when in 1987 the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger were honoured in Paris and it was affirmed that their rights will be respected.

With the commemoration of the day governments, members of civil society and people show their solidarity with the poor and their commitment to the full participation of people living in poverty, particularly in the decisions that affect their lives and communities. It is advocated by UN that their concerns must be at the centre of policies and strategies to build a sustainable future in which the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Persistent poverty of older people, like that of other groups including women, is a denial of human rights and its eradication takes more than just improving the material well-being, which no doubt should be our foundation to end poverty everywhere.

However, there is now realisation that poverty is invariably closely intertwined with humiliation and exclusion and this, we increasingly see in growing elder abuse and domestic violence incidents as well in other shades of violence against the disadvantaged around us. So long as people, old and young, living in poverty continue to suffer discrimination, humiliation and exclusion, their fundamental human rights will continue to be abused and their access to basic needs will be limited.

Recent UN data on old age poverty indicates that significant portion of older people do not have sufficient means to support themselves financially and, as a result, live in poverty and poor health. In India total cost of public benefits provided to the population aged 60 and over, including both pension and healthcare programme is very low and it not likely to improve in the near future, these expenditures on older people will remain well below the GDP share and compared to majority of the countries for the next two decades at least if not more.

Currently, only about 10 per cent of labour force in India is entitled to public pensions. The main pension scheme excludes a large swath of the population — the self-employed both in rural and urban areas, agricultural workers, and members of cooperatives with fewer than 50 workers.

It is hoped that with the launching of the new defined contribution scheme in 2015 that offers participants flexibility in contribution levels, a guaranteed minimum rate of return, and for those who joined in 2015, the government provides matching funds for the next five years, the situation of attempting to eradicate poverty through social security measures will improve. After all one of the key goals of mandated public pension programmes is to alleviate poverty among older population, though there are various other existent poverty measures and definitions across countries. Nonetheless, in general, using World Bank definition we can take poverty as pronounced deprivation in well being, and with increasing age people’s capacity to function in society often declines especially “with limited access to education, political rights and psychological support”.

However, it is encouraging that the declaration of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda “to end poverty in all its forms everywhere” and that “no one will be left behind” recognises that not only people living in poverty suffer from more than just a lack of income, but that people of all ages, including the old, will be included in developmental policies. Their contribution and participation in various spheres will be acknowledged. There are attempts to end hunger, achieve food security through improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture. India has improved its hunger levels from alarming to serious according to the International Food Policy Research Institute Global Hunger Index, 2016, moving from 46.4 scorecard in 1992 to 28.5 in 2016, though worse than our neighbours Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

There is also growing emphasis to give disadvantaged groups such as women, older people equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance. Good news in India is that the government is in the process of revising the existent 1999 policy for older persons by taking into account the demographic reality of an ageing society and emerging needs of older men and women. Also there are steps being taken to improve access to quality essential healthcare services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all age groups.

There are no two opinions about the fact that poverty has an adverse effect on both individuals and society. Not only does poverty lead to limited access to resources but it also results in greater need for health, care and other services. Governments, civil society members, different groups of people have to take strong steps to end poverty for all age groups, for it is important that people enjoy quality of life both in their younger and later years.

India along with China, Indonesia and Nigeria, countries in totality having about half of the global poor must urgently and promptly work towards changing the situation. Unemployment, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain population to keeping people away from being productive must end.

Mala Kapur Shankardass is a health and development sociologist and gerontologist. She works as Associate Professor, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, India. Email: LittleThingsMatter@gmail.com