CZECH REPUBLIC: New Council for Seniors Established

PRAGUE (CTK-Czech News Agency), March 22, 2006: The Czech Republic government today established an advisory Council on Seniors that will also deal with problems linked to the ageing of Czech society. The council will help the state to better prepare to the fact that Czech society is ageing and the number of the elderly people is growing. The council will start its work at the end of April and will have 27 members. Twelve will represent civil service bodies and 15 will represent organisations whose activities focus on problems of seniors and the ageing population. The council is expected to draft a systematic approach to the problem of ageing and coordinate cooperation of ministries, organisations and individuals in this area. Its members could give advice to the government whose term of office will end in a few months, in the questions of the improvement of the employment, housing and education of seniors. The council's activities will cost some 50,000 crowns a year ($1=23.526 crowns)and will be covered from the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry's budget. People over 65 make up about 15 percent of the Czech population. According to the statistical estimates, the figure will reach 25 percent in 2030 and about one-third in 2050, which is three million. About 500,000 people over 85 are expected to live in the Czech Republic by this time. In 2002, the government approved the National Programme of the Preparation for Population Ageing that includes measures that should be implemented by 2007. These measures concern the employment of the elderly, their financial situation, the healthy life style, social activities, education and housing. However, the state and regions have so far failed to implement many of the goals set in the programme. The employment of the elderly has not improved since companies often refuse to employ people over 50 as they consider them non-adaptable and inflexible. The health and social services have not adapted themselves to accommodating the elderly. Czech society tends to underestimate them and harbours many prejudices towards seniors. The view that they often occupy jobs necessary for the young and that the young have to work on them is wide-spread in Czech society.