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 socioeconomic
and political problems. In such scenario, efforts to voice the rights of elderly seem
a bit surprising and out-of-priority box. Objective: The paper attempts to serve as an eyeopener
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. Materials and Methods: 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 pretested
vigorously. Study Design: This paper is extracted out of the base-line exploratory study.
Setting: Rawalpindi city. Period: Oct 2013 to Dec 2013. Results: 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. Conclusions: Pakistan is not an aged-friendly country that even lacks a policy
at national level for the welfare rights of older persons.