India s Support System for Elderly Myths and Realities K S James Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore, India AGEING IN ASIA-PACIFIC: Balancing the State and the Family 20TH BIENNIAL GENERAL CONFERENCE, AASSREC April 4-6, 2013
The Context: Demographic Changes India is experiencing a rapid demographic change recently Fertility Rate (TFR) in 2010 is 2.5 close to replacement level Among 20 major states, 10 states constituting 40 % of India s population have reached replacement level fertility (less than TFR of 2.1) At this pace, India is expected to reach replacement level by the second half of this decade India s fertility change is unconventional and is not backed by significant socio-economic changes
Population Ageing in India Demographic Changes have wide future implications for ageing Currently, there around 100 million elderly in the country constituting 8 per cent of the total population It is expected to increase to 11 per cent by 2025 and 20 per cent by 2050 By 2030 India will have around 320 million elderly (60 years and above); many times bigger than the total population of many other nations
Who Should Support the Elderly? Government? (Government enacted a law- The maintenance and welfare of senior citizen act 2007- transferrring the responsibility to the children) Institutional Support? (Institutional care system, both private and public, remains underdeveloped and hardly exist. Currently, only a small (less than 0.01 per cent) proportion of elderly has access to institutional care) Family? (It is accepted that family is the sole sources of economic support for the elderly in the country)
The Emerging Questions Are the families the sole support system for the elderly in India? Are the adult children contribute significantly for the welfare of the elderly? This paper is an attempt to understand the economic exchanges between adult to elderly and vice versa in India
The Caveat With the decline in fertility, the aspiration for ensuring quality children of children in terms of education, health care etc are also increasing in the country Due to the peculiar nature of fertility transition, the adults with lower number of children are not socioeconomically well off so as to accumulate significant savings for the welfare of both children and elderly Therefore it remains to be seen how far it is feasible to have adults supporting elderly in a poor settings like India
What do elderly aspire? A survey conducted showed that majority of the elderly consider that children should take care of them during old age (these answers have its own cultural specificity) 54 per cent of the elderly consider that children should support elderly in old age 25 per cent of them considered that elderly should be independent and take care of themselves 21 per cent wish that the government take care of them Thus the elderly expect economic support largely from children
Motivation and Objective There is some evidence to suggest that those household having an elderly in India have marginally better off economically than households without an elderly Therefore, it is important to understand the dynamics of economic support of family to the elderly and vice versa The purpose is to find out how far the notion of children supporting elderly during old age is true in the country?
Data The data for he study is drawn from a large scale survey conducted among elderly in late 2011 This study collected information from 9852 elderly from 8329 households across seven states of India The selected states are demographically more advanced and have already achieved replacement level fertility in the past More details about the survey can be obtained from our website (www.isec.ac.in/prc)
Sources of Income for the Elderly
Source of Income Source of Income can be divided into two: 1. Factor Income (Factor income includes all earnings from wages or salary as well as asset income like rents, interest on saving, and dividends paid on investments etc) 2. Transfer Income (Transfer income includes benefits from government programmes as well as private pensions and annuities) It is expected that the main source of income for elderly is from transfer and not factor income
Work Participation
Percentage of Elderly Currently Working According to Place of Residence and Sex, 2011 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 42.0 29.7 26.2 18.5 11.6 9.1 Male Female Total Rural Urban
percentage Currently working elderly by age and sex, 2011 (in percent), 2011 60.0 50.0 48.5 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 27.2 14.9 13.2 5.2 2.7 60-69 70-79 80+ Women Men
Characteristics of the Elderly Workers Nearly all working elderly are full time workers (81 % work over 6 months in a year and 94 % work over 4 hours in a day) Elderly workers are mostly drawn from lower wealth quintiles and have no formal education, belongs to vulnerable social groups and are women living alone Majority of workers are engaged in unskilled labouragricultural labourers (28%) with low wages
Per cent Distribution of Currently Working Elderly by the Need to Work at Old Age According to Sex, 2011 Motivation for Work Men Women Total By choice 32.0 17.6 28.6 Economic/Other compulsion 67.9 82.2 71.3 No answer 0.1 0.2 0.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Number of elderly 1,716 549 2,265
Percent Who works due to compulsion? Majority working due to compulsion are poor (measured by wealth quintiles) and have no or low levels of education Drawn mainly from widows, SC/ST community and those who live alone Elderly work in India appears to be due to lack of choice and a means for survival!! 100 80 60 40 20 0 87.5 73.5 67.2 49.3 42.5 Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest Wealth Quintiles
Why Not Working? Among those who are currently not working (but were working in the past), 32 % of men and 47 % of women indicated poor health as reasons for not working A quarter of them felt that they are too old and weak to work and another 10 % due to disability
Work and Welfare Work participation at older ages is viewed differently in different contexts In India, work is more of compulsion and not choice for majority of elderly This is particularly true for socio-economically vulnerable sections among elderly Wok is perhaps a necessity for most elders to take care of their basic needs
Assets and Income
Percentage of Elderly by Asset Ownership by Sex, 2011 Type of Assets Men Women Total Land 50.5 23.6 36.4 House 79.8 45.2 61.6 Housing plot 2.7 1.6 2.2 Gold or jewellery 21.6 29.2 25.6 Savings in bank, post office, cash 30.8 14.7 22.3 Savings in bonds, shares, mutual 0.2 0.1 0.1 funds Life insurance 2.5 0.7 1.6 Don t own any asset 11.0 34.1 23.1 Total 4,672 5,180 9,852
Issues Relating to Asset Ownership The magnitude of land and savings owned by the elderly is small (only 28% of men and 11% of women own more than 1 acre of land and 9% of men and 3% of women have more than Rs 50,000 in savings) There is a vast gender gap in the ownership of land (51% of men and 24% of women), housing (80 % of men and 46% of women) and savings (32 % of men and 15% of women)
Issues Relating to Asset Ownership Widowed or separated women are more likely to own assets than currently married women - 28% of widows and separated women own no assets compared to 43% of currently married women Only a small percent of elderly have nominated an heir for the assets owned by them, with children primarily being nominated for land, housing and jewellery and spouses for savings
Transfer Income
Work Benefits Percentage of Elderly Receiving Pension Benefits According to Sex, 2011 Sex Percent receiving pension Number of Cases Men 16.7 4672 Women 3.0 5180 Total 9.5 9852
Tamil Nadu Maharashtra Odisha Punjab West Bengal Total Himachal Pradesh Kerala Percentage of Elderly Receiving Pension in Different States, 2011 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 4.2 4.5 4.9 7.5 9.0 9.5 18.1 18.6
Utilization of National Social Security Schemes There are three major social security schemes by the Government, Pension for poor elderly (IGNOAPS), Pension for poor widows (IGNWPS) and More allocation in Public Distribution System (Annapurna) All meant for Below Poverty Line (BPL) households Utilisation of the schemes is low among the elderly IGNOAPS is only 18 % among BPL elderly, IGNWPS is 25 % among BPL widows and Annapurna only 4 % Non-BPL households are also availing benefits (IGNOAPS:10%; IGNWPS:15 % and Annapurna:0.3%)
Precent Covered Coverage of Health Insurance Schemes 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 1.6 1.2 1.4 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.2 0 0.1 Government assisted Private and public health insurance schemes Any Other Men Women Total
Percentage of Elderly by Sources of Current Personal Income According to Sex, 2011 Sources of Income Men Women Total Salary/Wages/Asset Income 55.6 15.0 34.2 Employer s pension (government or other) 16.5 6.8 11.4 Social pension (old age/ widow) 13.7 22.4 18.3 No income 26.0 58.7 43.2 Number of elderly 4,672 5,180 9,852
Financial Contribution of the Elderly to the Family
Per cent Distribution of Elderly by their Perceived Magnitude of Contribution towards Household Expenditure, 2011 Proportion of Men Women Total Contribution No income 26.0 58.7 43.3 No contribution 2.8 5.7 4.3 <40% 6.7 8.2 7.5 40-60% 10.6 4.8 7.5 60-80% 13.3 4.2 8.5 80+ 40.4 18.0 28.6 DK/NA 0.2 0.4 0.3 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Number of elderly 4,672 5,180 9,852
Percentage Contribution of Elderly towards Household Expenditure, 2011 Purpose of Expenditure * Men Women Total Daily expenditure 94.3 80.3 88.9 Children s/ 20.9 10.4 16.9 Grand children s education Medical expenses 70.6 61.9 67.3 Savings 22.8 9.9 17.9 Loan repayment 10.7 4.1 8.2 Special events 31.0 18.1 26.1 Number of elderly 3,440 2,148 5,588 *multiple response
Financial Dependency of Elderly
Per cent Distribution of Elderly by their Financial Dependency Status According to Sex, 2011 Financial Dependence Men Women Total Fully dependent 32.6 66.4 50.4 Partially dependent 31.8 21.0 26.1 Not dependent 35.5 12.5 23.4 Don t know/no answer 0.1 0.1 0.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Number of elderly 4,672 5,180 9,852
Per cent Distribution of Elderly by Main Source of Economic Support According to Sex, 2011 Source of Economic Men Women Total Support Son 46.8 52.2 49.7 Spouse 7.3 22.0 15.0 Daughter 2.4 4.8 3.7 Others 5.5 6.0 5.8 Not dependent on anyone 37.9 14.9 25.8 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Number of elderly 4,672 5,180 9,852
Major Conclusions Households with elderly appears to be marginally better off than other households due to the contribution of elderly to the households Elderly work, earn income and also contribute to the household income for daily survival They work not out of choice but out of compulsion indicating that elderly work is a survival strategy for many households The work benefits are nearly absent and transfer income covers only a smaller proportion The assets are universal but the magnitude of assets are minimum
Immediate word recall (Data: ELSA, HRS, SAGE, SHARE) Source: Skirbekk et al 2012
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