INDONESIA: Ageing Population Growing, Say Experts

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post), March 1, 2008: By Erwida Maulia Indonesians are set for a boost in life expectancy, experts say. The number of over-60-year-old citizens is expected to reach more than 70 million by 2050, an increase from 16.6 million currently. A professor of demography at the University of Indonesia (UI), Sri Moertiningsih Adioetomo, said Wednesday the number of elderly people in the country would continue to grow slowly until 2015 before increasing rapidly through 2050. This is mainly due to an increase in life expectancy which reached 65.4 years in 2000 and is predicted to grow to 69.9 in 2015 and 76.9 in 2050, she said, quoting data from a 2006 revision of the World Population Projection 1950-2050 and 2005 data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas). In 2005, 63 percent of elderly people in Indonesia consisted of those aged between 60 and 69 years old, the group known as the young-old group; 29 percent between 70 and 79 years old, or the middle-old group; and 8 percent 80 years and older, or the grand-old group. "There will be more old women across the age groups with the gap between the two sexes growing wider in the older groups. Women live longer than men," Sri said in a seminar titled "Aging, Gender and Health" at the University of Indonesia campus in Depok. She said, according to the World Population Projection, the total number of elderly men would reach 33.1 million nationwide by 2050, while the number of elderly women would reach 40.3 million. In the seminar, she said the increasing number of elderly people would have many consequences. "Who will take care of them and ensure their economic welfare?" said Sri. She said 480,000 men and 230,000 women over the age of 80 were heads of households, meaning they were their families' foremost bread-winners. Sri said many of these people were working full time, or more than 35 hours per week. "Thirty percent of men and 10 percent of women over the age of 80 work full time, while the percentage of those working part time is even higher." she said. She said the alarming fact was workers in the age group tended to generate very low income. Yudarini, also from UI, said most elderly people, especially women, had poor educations. Most women from the young-old group did not graduate from elementary school, while most men only graduated from junior high school. In the middle-old and grand-old groups, the majority of women did not go to school at all, while most men stopped after elementary school. "The good news is that most of the people from all of these groups already have their own houses. Most of them live with their children, but without husbands or wives," said Yudarini. She said, while grand-old people in rural areas still lived with their families, those in urban areas tended to live in care centers. Indang Trihandini, at UI's School of Public Health, said 76 percent of elderly people in the country lived in rural areas. She also said 88.9 percent of elderly people had difficulties (she referred to them as "disabilities") with day-to-day physical activities, but that the risk of disability could be reduced by engaging in regular physical activity at a young age. Indang said medical check-ups should be included in health insurance policies for elderly people because they could help to reduce the risk of disability. Copyright The Jakarta Post