The Current Living Condition of the Elderly people in

Bangladesh
Abstract:

In traditional agro-based Bangladesh society has been composed of joint

families. The old parents were used to living with their male offspring
and depended on them in meeting their needs. The older people were
respected by all and enjoyed important social position in the extended
household. But the traditional joint families have started splitting into
nuclear and small size families and at the same time the elder people’s
situation is changing enormously. It is shown from a literature that;
modernization and urbanization are connected with small family
structure. Also Age discrimination creates social, physical, economic
insecurity and negligence to the elderly population. The main objective
of the study is to find out the present living conditions of the Elderly
people in Bangladesh and find out vulnerabilities in some specific
components of living condition such as: Economic Condition ( After
retirement challenges, economic policies implemented by the
government and the apply of these policies), Health Care System
( Physical and Mental conditions and vulnerabilities, Opportunities
given for the elderly people in medical health care system, Social
Position of the Elderly people ( treatment they receive from the family,
if they are isolated from the social activities, the current role they have
in both the society and the family.) Since Bangladesh does not have a
social welfare system there will be competition for inadequate resources
specially health and medical services. It is envisaged that due to more
elderly population the demographic structure will undergo a slow change
from the present pyramid structure. The growing trend towards nuclear
family or where children live abroad will put the elderly parents in a
dilemma-the financial and social support that is essential for them has
not yet emerged. The nutrition and health status of elderly people
depend on adequate food safe water, proper sanitation facilities and
maintaining hygienic standards. There is not enough data about the
situation of elderly people in Bangladesh. Therefore, this retrospective
study was done on elderly population of Bangladesh to identify
emerging issues and challenges of the elderly and to explore different
type of vulnerabilities of elderly people in Bangladesh.

Contribution: Design of the Research and Qualitative Field Survey