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Developing Countries: Rural Areas
In rural areas of most developing countries, the elderly live with an extended family, consisting of a couple, married and unmarried children, grandchildren, collateral and affinal relatives in the same shelter or compound. In this setting, reciprocal obligations felt by family members for one another arise from strong kinship bonds. In the traditional extended family, the aged enjoy high prestige as custodians of village lore and morality, and as persons standing nearest to departed ancestors. As family headsmen, landowners and bearers of vital information about agriculture, artisan skills, folk medicine, child care and warfare, the elderly enjoy honor and exercise some degree of authority over younger family members. As long as they are physically able, they also contribute to productive work in farming. In return, the elderly are given shelter, food, financial support and, if needed physical care. Even if an older person is frail or sick, caring is divided between multiple family members and easily handled.
Within the extended family, the elderly thus enjoy a sense of belonging, as well as emotional and physical security.
An emerging complaint of the elderly of today, in many developing countries, is the change in social values due to which the younger generations are no longer accepting the authority of the elderly.
An appreciable number of elderly persons belong to poor and very poor families. One fifth of elderly surveyed in the five countries of South
East Asia stated that they do not have enough money to meet their basic needs. In India, for example, out of 50 million aged at present, 15 to
20 millions belong to this group. They are dependent for almost all basic necessities of life and due to continued malnutrition over long periods of time, most of them are also in poor health and some of them suffer from multiple chronic diseases. However, official programs for providing effective social and health care for aged in most developing countries are still far from being fully implemented.
One reason that poverty is widespread among the rural elderly is because they have spent their lives as subsistence farmers with very little savings and no formal pension plan. Poverty is handled with fatalism and resignation. Poverty is rationalized as "will of the Gods" or punishment for evil done in previous life.
On the brighter side, another study on the socioeconomic profile of the aged persons conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization in India in September 1989 reports that many elderly in India are economically independent. This report notes that 34.0 percent of the elderly in rural areas and 29 percent living in urban areas are economically independent.
It also reveals that 40% of the rural elderly and 27% of the urban elderly are employed, thus earning their living. The majority of these older people remain physically and mentally fit and retain the potential to contribute substantially to their community through continued work, domestic activities and child minding.
(Generally the elderly of today living in rural areas of developing countries are a content lot being well cared for by the joint family system.)
Picture: Elderly in Rural India
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