Bangladesh faces a multitude of challenges with high poverty rates, a dense population, and increased vulnerability to climate change. On top of that, it has an ageing population with an estimated 16% of the population as over 60 years old by 2040 (help age), more than double what it is now.
What is more, 50% of the elderly (2 million people) are extremely poor, earning less than a dollar a day. They are frail, infirm, often chronically ill, and unable to do physical labour for a living.
They are some of the most vulnerable people in Bangladesh, but many of them do not have access to social safety nets. The government offers old age and widow allowances, but these often don’t reach the people who need them most. This leaves a significant portion of the population in a state of poverty and high vulnerability.
Shiree is a partnership between the governments of Bangladesh and UK that aims to help lift 1 million people out of extreme poverty by 2015. Around 15% of the 300,000 households Shiree currently works with include members that are elderly and often excluded from the old age allowance they are entitled to. Through an innovative smartphone monitoring application (CMS 2), Shiree uses a monthly tracking system to monitor real-time changes in the socio-economic wellbeing of its households.
In December 2013, approximately 3,200 out of 5,200 old age headed households reported not receiving any safety nets despite their eligibility to receive such government support. The old age allowance is a meagre Tk300 distributed monthly, which is not enough to support even a single person and furthermore it is poorly targeted, with high exclusion rates and irregular distribution, and still, this miniscule amount of taka can mean a lot for someone living on the brink of destitution and is often the difference between destitution and resiliency.
Fortunately, there are a number of NGOs across Bangladesh who are providing support to the elderly, countering the lack of access to government safety nets. However, there are additional challenges to consider when working with the elderly to lift them from extreme poverty.
Some of the NGOs in the Shiree portfolio have been studying sustainable income generation options for the elderly. This research hopes to understand how to effectively work with the elderly in livelihood programs and assess which income generating assets (IGAs) they can most easily manage.
Research findings have shown that family reconstruction appears to be common when an elderly beneficiary receives an IGA. In many cases, children will return to support their parent in managing the asset. In some cases however there appears to be exploitation of elderly people. Although many children manage the IGA for their elderly parent, this is not always done fairly. They will often give their parent a portion of the money generated that week, keeping the majority for themselves. In one severe case, an elderly woman explained that her son had taken her asset away but still refused to feed her unless she paid him. Already in a highly vulnerable state, she was forced to resort to begging. Unfortunately, these stories are not uncommon.
There are further issues when elderly beneficiaries have no children to look after them. One elderly man was given a cow but he got sick and his children would not look after it for him. He told the project staff he no longer wanted the cow and that they should take it back as he was better off before. IGAs that require physical labour such as livestock or rickshaws are often burdensome for the elderly with the considerable amount of work necessary to manage them.
Asset transfers can help people lift themselves out of extreme poverty in a sustainable way, but when they are transferred to the elderly there is a danger that the transfer could fail, decrease their self confidence or result in their exploitation. Many elderly people say that rather than receiving livestock which they cannot look after, they would prefer to be given land. This would enable them to build a permanent shelter and reduce any threat of eviction.
In order to successfully lift the elderly from extreme poverty, implementing agencies need to work closely with them to understand what type of support they need when transferring them an asset. Furthermore, it is important to ensure they are receiving their entitled old age allowance.
Access to social safety nets is crucial as the elderly are often far less able to generate a sufficient income and need the additional support. One way of ensuring this is to lobby the local government to make certain all those qualifying for social safety nets are receiving it, particularly those most vulnerable. Educating the elderly on their rights is also important so they know what entitlements they can demand from their government.
Essentially it is about striking a balance between a secure asset transfer that can sustainably generate an income for an elderly person as well as ensuring they regularly receive their entitled social safety net. At scale, this could enable the 2 million elderly people living in extreme poverty to meet their basic needs and no longer worry over where their next meal will come from.
