Much of the imagination of the vulnerable elderly is that of the middle class elderly stuck in Homes where they are rarely visited by their children. It's a touch of facts, touch or nostalgia mixed with a great deal of unreality. The situation for the elderly has changed just as that for the middle aged and the young. The ailing elderly is another class altogether.

This is a fact that can't be changed and while the young and the middle have coped as much as possible but the elderly poor as the most feeble of the three clusters have been unable to do so.

The first encounter

Like most people I was oblivious to the state of the Elderly till I did a radio series for the BBC on the topic. The area I covered was roughly the Bengali speaking world -Bangladesh and West Bengal of India. We observed the elderly in different conditions and just as new insights were gained, many older notions were also revised and adjusted. A few of the major ones are:

- The experience of being a vulnerable elderly is influenced by several factors such as their class and economics.

- Most interventions for the elderly were not planned with the elderly poor in mind

- The capacity of the elderly was ignored and they were seen as feeble and infirm rather than vulnerable who needed specific support to overcome them.

Official policies were not always adopted based on evidence but notions. Pre-conceptions of whom and what the elderly was influenced research as well. Apart from that, as a non-producing class, they could be easily and usually ignored by the decision makers. The result was a large left out group of people in society considered a burden by all.

What the field experience said

The field showed various situations according to economic class. We found that the upper class often lived by themselves looked after paid help or poor relatives. They were a small cluster.

The urban middle lived with their children in most cases and were emotionally and even physically abused and in general neglected. They were not seen as a responsibility but a burden. This was borne out by the Covid crisis when the elderly suffered most, were not looked after and had no access of their own to emergency health and other needs.

The elderly poor were the worst victims as expected. In Bangladesh many rural poor elderly survived on the shrines which were like informal social security systems.

In Kolkata, we came across several elderly day care centres where the pavement and slum dwellers would come for a free meal, a place of respite from the weather and general social hostility but they were not an answer to the problem of urban or rural poverty affecting the seniors.

The governments of both countries did hardly invest in this population group which had no political and economic clout. Interestingly, they wouldn't be suffering if they had clout. So it's a deadly catch-22.

A positive example

One positive example that we encountered was the project set up by a Bangladeshi NGO titled RIC or Resources Integration Centre. What they had done was move into the villages where pro-elderly interventions were few. They identified the elderly who had some skills but didn't have access to their tools and capital. Most had lived with their family and had been forced to leave. They lived in high poverty.

RIC supported them by providing tools, capital and marketing support. Contrary to common expectation they were physically able to work and soon had turned around their life. In fact they had become so "empowered' that the very family which had left them out now sought support from them. Some of the children even moved in with their parents. A dramatic change was obvious.

Lessons learnt

The lessons learnt from this exercise though which was a media activity not research gives a better understanding of the situation. The findings were the following:

The Elderly have multiple layers of vulnerability, some of which are age related but socio-economic factors are more prominent. Age enhances the issues the Elderly face.

Staying with the family has advantages but it appears that the disadvantages are also high. Currently, better off elderly people prefer to live in care homes which have sprung up all over.

GOB has little capacity to take care and the elderly pensions are inadequate and create a new level of vulnerability for the pension seekers through both the process and control over the money.

The cultural perception of the elderly as infirm and unable to work is not correct. Many are able but social and perceptional pressures forces early retirement and loss of income.

The elderly are the new poor but are the most neglected. Social charity for the elderly has also declined.

It's therefore clear that different interventions are required for different groups and classes but the common factor is access to economics, whether its savings, pensions not GOB allowances, or income from work. For the poor, work appears to be the best way out and it's possible either through support to a previous easy to do now profession if possible or training for new work.