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Govt pledges better treatment for elderly
The President says he wants to put an end to scenes of elderly people begging along streets and jostling in crowds for public services and aid by improving welfare and building more homes for them
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he President says he wants to put an end to scenes of elderly people begging along streets and jostling in crowds for public services and aid by improving welfare and building more homes for them.
“It’s not good and ethical that elderly and disabled people must jostle in crowds to access public services,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, addressing a commemoration here of National Senior Citizens’ Day on Wednesday.
Official figures show that several million senior citizens are unable to meet their basic needs, while the state provides a monthly support of only Rp 300,000 (US$29) to less than 1 percent of them.
Indonesians’ average life expectancy has improved from 65.4 years in 2000 to 70.7 years at present, a condition that has seen the population of senior citizens grow from 14.4 million in 2000 to 16.8 million in 2005 and to 19.5 million in 2008, according to official figures.
Quoting data from the Central Statistics Agency, Social Services Minister Salim Segaf Al-Jufri said that nearly 3 million old people — 60 years or older — living today had been “neglected”, meaning the could not meet their basic needs.
“We want to continue to improve public services for elderly and disabled people. Please build facilities for them in every town,” the President said.
There are only 278 homes for senior citizens nationwide, meaning the vast majority of elderly people must support themselves or live with their families.
Salim said the government had since 2006 been building more homes for the elderly.
However, government financial support only reaches 10,000 senior citizens, or less than 1 percent of those who are unable to support themselves.
“We hope the figure will increase from 10,000 people to 11,250 people [next year]. We hope it will continually increase,” Salim said after the event at the Presidential Palace.
The minister added that the government also provided discounts for public transportation services for senior citizens, but added that these were limited to only a few services, such as intercity government- run trains.
He also said the government had established several donation centers to collect funds from communities to support neglected elderly people, among others.
At the Presidential Palace, the President said the government would continue to increase its budget allocation for elderly-related programs, and would order local administrations to take similar measures.
“We have established the National Commission for the Protection of the Elderly, we have the 1998
Law on Senior Citizens’ Welfare and have adopted the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing,”
he said.
The Vienna Plan provides guidelines for governments to deal with ageing populations, “and to address the development potential and dependency needs of older persons.” “Thus, I call for all the government ranks at the central and local levels, as well as other institutions ... to act by seriously implementing the regulations,” he added.
The President said he had reiterated the government’s commitment to improve its treatment of elderly people, as well as other “vulnerable” groups through the launch of the “Justice for All” policy and action programs during a thorough Cabinet meeting in Tampak Siring Palace, in Bali, in April.
Minister Salim requested the President declare 2010 a “national social security year for neglected elderly people”.
