THAILAND: Ageing Populace Strains Families

Changing demographics will necessitate the need for additional schemes to support senior citizens, says an editorial in THE NATION BANGKOK, (The Nation), July 15, 2006: It is remarkable that Thai society, up until now, has managed to retain one of the nicer aspects of its culture: the obligation to respect and look after the elderly. But a major shift in the country's demographics will add to economic and social pressures on the family unit, which is already struggling to adequately provide for the burgeoning population of seniors. The increase in the percentage of seniors in the total population in Thailand is alarming according to the United Nations Population Fund's latest report. By 2025, the number of people aged 60 and over is projected to reach 17 per cent of the total population, or 13.2 million, and this number is expected to rise to 27 per cent, or 22.3 million, by 2050 - compared to the current 10 per cent, or 6 million. Factors behind this demographic transition include declining birth rates and a sustained improvement in life expectancy. It used to be that ageing populations were typical of wealthy industrial countries such as those in western and northern Europe and Japan. But this phenomenon is now happening in Thailand and some other middle-income developing countries as well. As this change in demographics comes into effect, the ratio of the elderly to the working-age population will rise steadily, thereby increasing the financial strains on family members who support them. The UN report projects that by 2050 there will be three older persons for every two children below the age of 15 in the world as a whole. Thailand has done little to prepare itself for this change in demographics. The government, for instance, did not recognise the importance of welfare for the elderly until 1992, when it adopted the National Long-term Plan of Action for the Elderly (1992-2011). Key measures recommended under the plan include the dissemination of knowledge to seniors on the need to provide for themselves, and on health in general, the prevention of disease and the importance of nutrition and proper exercise. The plan also calls for the extension of social-welfare services for the elderly, particularly for those without income or with insufficient income and without familial support. Although Thailand has national policies for the elderly, it still lacks public-education mechanisms to prepare people for old age in order to help ensure that they are able to grow old gracefully and remain financially secure in their later years. Despite its supposedly senior-friendly policies, the Social Security Office only introduced statutory retirement benefits in 1998. The old-age pension scheme is a subsistent arrangement aimed to ensure that retired workers do not fall into the trap of poverty in old age. But benefits for pensioners are set at between Bt1,500 and Bt2,000 per month, which is grossly inadequate. Thailand must build up its old-age plan in terms of both the extension of coverage as well as the improvement of benefits. But it must avoid the pitfalls of many developed countries that are now being saddled with pension schemes that turn out to be neither financially viable nor sustainable. To achieve policy objectives that are truly compatible with Thailand's human and social values requires all of society to engage in a rational debate on how to design a better pension scheme, complemented by other forms of social-security benefits. Sound governance must also be put in place to ensure that the financial resources intended for social-security schemes are wisely managed and not regarded by politicians as a "rainy-day" fund that they can divert for other purposes. The traditional extended family, which once provided old-age protection, is increasingly giving way to the emergence of nuclear families. Many older persons will unfortunately fall through the informal safety net once provided by extended families. That's why the expansion of institutional care by public and private care providers should be promoted to provide necessary services to older people who are without the wherewithal to fend for themselves. Nursing homes for the elderly to be funded partly by the government, the private sector and by the elderly and their families, should be promoted. Nonetheless, it must be stressed that in most circumstances, the best care providers for the elderly remain the family, whose loving support is vital for the physical, emotional and mental well-being of older people. But they should not count on things to remain the same as families come under increasing economic and social strains. © 2006 www.nationmultimedia.com