Protecting Elderly People in Bangladesh: An Overview

Abstract

The elderly rights have tended to become an issue throughout the world. Old age is the closing period of life span. During this period of age, most people cannot do anything by their own efforts. They need materialistic and nonmaterialistic support from others. For this, reason age is considered as a social problem. Equally, they are neglected and abused from family and society. Protecting the rights of elderly people is a newly introduced phenomenon in Bangladesh. The developed countries have paid more attention on social support system and welfare based legal framework. In Bangladesh, the elderly problem is usually ignored as there is no comprehensive legal framework with relation to respecting, promoting and protecting the rights of older people. The first law has been enacted in 2013 (the Maintenance of Parents Act) to ensure the parents' maintenance by their children. Nevertheless, there is no separate welfare policy existing for the elderly in the country yet. It is a challenge to deliver the essential health care service, social security facilities through national laws. The purpose of the study is to overview the existing legal framework of elderly rights and to discuss the major challenges of older people under the existing social security programme in Bangladesh.

Vulnerabilities of older adults and mitigation measures to address COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh: A review

“…Bangladesh subsequently did not implement a specific social security program covering the safety and care of older adults. The Government, however, has introduced many policies for older adults, such as pension schemes, health insurance, and other social security network policies, like the old-age allowance, freedom fighter Allowance, widow and abandoned women's allowance, and the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) program ( Ferdousi, 2019 ). Older people's programs have been limited to the Government's pension scheme and other insurance schemes for public sector workers.…”

“…In Bangladesh, the majority of older people are facing particular difficulties: family care, physical and mental health, community health care, social care, housing, transport, jobs, income, education, security, service and consumer protection, information access, and decision making ( Ferdousi, 2019 ). Issues that older adults in the country experience and face rely mainly on their socio-economic status and residence ( Rahman, 2012 ).…”

“…Bangladesh's older adults are generally treated as vulnerable due to their family dependency, poor socio-economic conditions, low literacy, poor access to health services, comorbidities, and lack of proper social security programs ( Banna et al, 2022 ; Ferdousi, 2019 ). However, recent research has detailed how COVID-19 has affected the lives of older adults with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), highlighting the disruption to essential public health services in Bangladesh ( Yadav et al, 2020 ).…”

Assessment of the Needs of Rural Older People in Bangladesh

“…Policies for the older people have been limited to pension schemes for government servants and various retirement benefits for employees in the public sector. However, these programmes are not available to the vast segment of the older population in Bangladesh (Ferdousi, 2019). Although the Bangladeshi government has begun to recognise the need for social welfare programmes for older people, the initiative is still limited relative to the existing challenges faced by the older people of Bangladesh.…”

Relationship between Malnutrition and Functional Disability in Selected Community-Dwelling Geriatric Population in Bangladesh

“…Now with the increase of the number of the aging population, a burning question arises: Are we ensuring proper health for this growing segment of the population? The significant challenges of elderly care in Bangladesh are the absence of any social security system, lack of employment opportunities, lack of financial source, and inadequate social support program [4].…”