Pakistan and urban ageing scenario; an anthropo-economic narrative on older persons' health

ABSTRACT

Ageing is exactly the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age. The state of Pakistan is caught in the complicated web of various socio-economic and political problems. In such scenario, efforts to voice the rights of elderly seem a bit surprising and out-of-priority box. The paper attempts to serve as an eye-opener for the policy makers both in public and private sectors to interrelate the factors deemed imperative for taking concrete steps to redress the menace arising out of ignoring ageing and dropping it from the national development agenda. Structured interview schedule was developed to collect information on Older Persons' health, economic and psychological status. In this regard, an extensive questionnaire was designed and pre-tested vigorously. This paper is extracted out of the base-line exploratory study. Rawalpindi city. Oct 2013 to Dec 2013. 69.3% OPs reported various diseases, 19.7% respondents never visited the doctor. 25.1% respondents' last visit to the doctor was between six months to more than a year. 15.3% visited the doctor for a medical treatment. Older persons with no permanent income made them more vulnerable to suffer various illnesses. Pakistan is not an aged-friendly country that even lacks a policy at national level for the welfare rights of older persons