Sri Lanka, one of the fastest ageing populations

By Anuradha KODAGODA

The world population turned seven billion by the end of October. The launch of the State of the World Population report 2011 and a Population Symposium on Seven Billion was held last Thursday with the participation of many academic, political and media professionals. The event was organised by the Population Association of Sri Lanka with the collaboration of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

This year the main theme of the Population Symposium was 'I am one of seven billion' and in parallel to that the discussion was based on the challenges which are common across the globe for which we have to find collective solutions.

Can we be seriously proud about being 'One of the seven billion' when considering the key problems which we are already facing with the tremendous population growth shown during the past few decades.

The National Population Fund has identified four main areas that they foresee as main challenges in the future.

The State of World Population 2011 shows that people under 25 make up 43 percent of the world's population, with the percentage reaching 60 percent in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Changes

What is the situation in Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka population is reaching 21 million in the near future and out of that 5 million young people represent the largest population which is a record in Sri Lanka's history. With these changes, are we cautious enough to identify the issues which particularly matters to the young generation such as formulating policies for adolescents and youth and issues concerning adequate knowledge on sexual and reproductive health. Attention is needed with regard to adolescent females and the increase in gender-based violence towards women.

The latest statistics shows that the adolescents and youth comprise 26 percent of Sri Lanka's population.

In Sri Lanka the average age of marriage has risen to 25 years for females and 27 years for males due to various socio-economic changes in society for the past few decades. However, with that change pre-marital sex is becoming common among the youth and adolescents though the sexual education and reproductive health have still not been fully addressed. Developing countries like Sri Lanka, still hesitate to treat sexuality as a basic need mainly due to cultural barriers even though we are very much excited about modernisation or globalisation. Due to that the reproductive health services only focus on married couples and neglect adolescents and youth which is an unspoken social problem in society.

Discrimination

However, UNFPA research proves that adolescents in Sri Lanka face lower levels of discrimination at home and at school relative to adolescents in the rest of South Asia.

The State of World Population 2011 report shows that the labour force participation rates for young women are lower than for young men in all regions except East Asia, mainly reflecting differing cultural traditions and the lack of opportunities for women to combine work and family responsibilities, not only in the developing world, but also in the industrialised world. In many regions gender gaps in youth participation rates have narrowed over the past decade but they remain large in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The main argument raised by the authorities is that the Sri Lankan women's literacy rate is 97 percent which is higher than other South Asian countries and Sri Lanka produced the first woman Prime Minister of the modern world in 1960. Though the Sri Lankan women's literacy rate is 97 percent the number of unemployed women with higher education qualifications is double or more than that of men and there only 13 women members of Parliament of a total of 225 Parliamentarians.

This indicates that the women's educational achievements may not necessarily translate into economic and political decision making gain which also we can consider as a cultural barrier. In Sri Lankan culture women are hardly encouraged to adoptan independent lifestyle. People have a very close relationship with their families and with their relatives, but it may be mainly due to the poor economic conditions in the society. On the other hand Sri Lankan culture still encouraged matriarchal society and family responsibilities are treated as first priority of a woman's life once they get married.

Many women who completed even their higher professional studies may refuse to work and stay home by looking after their children and parents. Therefore, the authorities must promote and encourage women to come forward and the important role that they can play for the economic gain in the country while promoting equal rights.

Fertility

Another important point raised at the symposium was that lower fertility and longer lives also add up to new challenges around the world. When fertility drops below a replacement level, the number of retiring workers each year will eventually exceed the number of new workers coming in to the labour market. Yet the healthy older generation is a growing reservoir of people who can contribute to the work force.

When we consider the situation in Sri Lanka, we are one of the fastest ageing populations in the developing world. Currently 10 percent of the population is over the age of 60 and by 2025 the elderly will account 20 percent of the population with women outnumbering men. With this issue, Sri Lanka is facing ageing related issues such as lack of health services, long-term care, living arrangements, income and social security, protection against abuse and special attention in emergencies.

With cultural boundaries, it is a challenging task to the Sri Lankan society to look after this problem. To overcome this type of problems the best solution would be to strengthen the economy and authorities must turn their attention to promote more social welfare in the country such as pension funds and retirement funds to ensure better economic conditions for the elderly people who can even live on their own without economic problems.

Message

Considering all the points discussed at the symposium, it is still questionable whether we are making effort to convey the message to the grass roots levels that we as a globe are heading to seven billion population with great challenges in terms of recourses, space and many socio-economic conditions for which we have to find solutions nationally and internationally. There is a high responsibility towards the government and relevant authorities to increase the capacity and competence of city and municipal authorities to manage urban development, to safeguard the environment, to respond to the need of all citizens, including urban squatters, for personal safety, basic infrastructure and services to eliminate health and social problems.