President declares elderly people as 'senior citizens'
President declares elderly people as 'senior citizens'
President Abdul Hamid has declared the elderly people as "senior citizens" of the country and urged all quarters to work sincerely to ensure their social dignity and security, and other facilities including food, clothing and treatment.
"I'm declaring all elderly people of the society as senior citizens of the country to pay respect to their contribution to the society and state," said the President while speaking at a programme here today.
Ministry of Social Welfare organized the programme to declare the elderly people as senior citizens of the country. Social welfare minister Syed Mohsin Ali, national professor Dr M R Khan, social welfare ministry secretary Nasima Begum and secretary general of Probin Hitoishi Snangha Dr A S M Atiqur Rahman, among others, spoke at the programme.
The President said the number of elderly people is increasing in the society because tremendous improvement of medical science helped increase life expectancy.
The number of the country's total elderly people is 1.30 crore and this number will stand at 1.8 crore by 2025 and 4.0 crore by 2050.
"It means the size of the elderly people will be around 20 percent of the total population . . . it would be the biggest challenge to the country's social, economic and healthcare in the future," he added.
Laying emphasis on keeping the elderly people involved in the mainstream of the family, society as well as the state, he said it is the responsibility of the society to give these elderly people priority in getting all civic services, including hospitals, banks, offices and courts.
The President recalled the contribution of the elderly people to the society and country with respect and said elderly people are the society's respectable persons and they worked for building families, society and country during the golden days of their life. But affection to the elderly people is now declining and they are now losing their authority and dignity in their own families, he said, adding that many elderly people are facing social insecurity because of financial hardship and deprivation of treatment facilities.
He said the government has taken a number of programmes for the welfare of the elderly people. Old age allowance has been introduced from 1997-98 fiscal year and the number of people getting such allowance has increased to 27,22,000 from only 400,000, he said, adding that the amount of allowance has been increased to Tk 400 from Tk 100.
The President said he came to know that the cabinet approved 'The National Policy on Elderly 2013' for the welfare of the elderly people. The government has also enacted 'Feeding and Lodging to Parents Act, 2013' and children are bound to ensure feeding and lodging for their parents under this act, he added.
He expressed his happiness that a number of organizations such as Probin Hitoishi Sangha, Centre for Rehabilitation of Elderly People, Retired Government Employees Welfare Association and Resource Integration Centre have been working for the welfare of the elderly people.
The President urged the financial institutions alongside the government and voluntary organizations, to take programmes under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the welfare of the country's elderly people.