75-year-old Veeran tells the BBC what it's really like to live on US$1 a day.LONDON, England (BBC World Service) January 23, 2008:
An estimated 100 million older people live on less than US$1 a day. The Millennium Development Goals commit the world to halving extreme poverty by 2015.
Older people are among the very poorest, and therefore must be reached by poverty-reduction programmes and government interventions.
The new BBC World Service documentary series, A Dollar A Day, looks at what it's really like to have to live on US$1 a day and how it can mean different things in different countries.
The series asks whether the Millennium Development Goals’ global target of halving world poverty by 2015 can really be achieved.
In part three, journalist Mike Wooldridge examines what life for an older person living in Delhi is like.
With HelpAge International’s partner organisation, HelpAge India, he visits Veeran, a spirited 75-year-old woman living alone in the back streets of the town of Rohtak, in north-west India. In her small, spartan home – the kitchen does not even have a roof – she symbolises one of India's newest challenges.
Number of older people on the increase
More and more people are living into their seventies and beyond, thanks to overall improvements in healthcare. But there is a growing problem of destitution among older people too.
The tradition in India, as in many Asian societies, of younger family members caring for older people can no longer be relied on. This is largely because of the impact of rapid urbanisation and increasing employment opportunities for women, the primary carers of older relatives.
Mike Wooldridge hears at first-hand how older people cope and how they see the changes taking place around them. Those who neglect their relatives could end up before tribunals – but is this what older people themselves want?
The policy issues involved are crucial. It is predicted that by the middle of the century Asia will be home to almost two-thirds of the world's older people.
Older people’s issues cannot be ignored
“The Indian Government must draw on the country’s new wealth to improve the lives of poor older people and meet Millennium Development Goal targets,” says M M Sabharwal, President Emeritus of HelpAge India’s governing body.
“A universal social protection package, including housing, health, education and pensions, is needed to benefit older people and other vulnerable groups.”
Mike Wooldridge concludes that older people’s issues cannot be separated from the broader range of poverty challenges the Indian Government has to tackle if it is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals target of halving extreme poverty by 2015.
Listen online
BBC Radio 4 will air the programme at 0930 GMT February 12.
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