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The changing socio-economic paradigm has led to a fundamental change in the way
communities and society has organized itself. The breakdown of community values
has created a new axis of vulnerability – age. Demographic data shows an increasing
number of aged in the populations across the globe; and studies have established
that these elderly persons, and specifically aged women, single women, face several
problems and challenges and need increased social security protection like pensions,
housing and healthcare support and innovative schemes.
The women's movement thus far has not yet engaged itself with issues of the ageing
women like access to pensions, social security, housing, access to affordable and
quality healthcare, etc. which now need our urgent attention. There is a need to
mainstream the issues of the elderly women amongst all stakeholders like NGOs, CSOs,
Government Departments, CSRs, Corporate Foundations etc. for developing sensitive
policies, programs and innovations like pensions, housing, social security cover
etc. to address the problems of the elderly and support them in their multiple needs.
There is a need to anchor this work in the South Asian perspective and strengthen
linkages with groups from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Introduction on the South Asia Forum for Aged Women (SAFAW)
The world is undergoing an increasing demographic transition where the number of
females is outnumbering the number of males in terms of life expectancy. The ‘Feminization
of Ageing’ is becoming even more problematic in developing countries such as India,
where concerns related to ageing is accentuated by the socio-economic and cultural
differences in the society.
It has become a matter of increasing urgency to look for ways to maintain and improve
the functional abilities of ageing people, especially the elderly women, to help
them cope independently in the community and ultimately, to raise the quality of
their lives.
Some nascent steps in this direction have been initiated in recent past by Stree
Shakti- The Parallel Force. The International Conference on “Ageing Women: Critical
Challenges and Concerns” was organized in New Delhi from 26-28th August 2013 by
Stree Shakti –The Parallel Force with the support of Help Age India and UNDP India.
As a way forward to the conference, Stree Shakti-The Parallel Force formed the South
Asia Forum for Aged Women which aims at identifying innovative practices to support
the elderly women groups, and to advocate for gender inclusive policy changes focusing
on the aged with government agencies and departments and mainstreaming the issues
and concerns of elderly women on the agenda of women’s groups, CSR, Corporate Foundations
and relevant organizations. In India, the project duration is from November 2013
to July 2014 and is being supported by UNFPA.
Interactive Meetings and Conferences
The South Asia Forum for Aged Women with support of UNFPA is concentrating work
in India advocating for aged women’s issues and concerns with women’s groups, CSR
and Corporate Foundations, government and relevant agencies. To achieve this, a
series of regional conferences and interactive meetings had been organized in New
Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and one in Kolkata to be held in April, in order to spread
awareness for the cause.
An update from the conferences:
- The Delhi meeting titled ‘Raising Awareness on Aged Women: Issues and Challenges’
was held on the 1st of February in collaboration with the National Resource
Centre for Women in Janpath Hotel.
- The Jaipur meeting titled ‘Aged Women: Issues and Challenges’ was held on 8th
of February in collaboration with The Centre for Community Economics and Development
Consultants Society (CECOEDECON), Jaipur. The conference was attended by 58 participants.
- A Zonal Conference on 'Women and Ageing' on March 10th, 2014 in Mumbai in
collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the SNDT Women’s
University.
- The Kolkata conference was held on the 21st April 2014. The conference was
in collaboration with Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
Documentation of Best Practices from across the country
The project intends to identify, document and collate innovations and good practices
for supporting the aged women to lead a life of dignity and security. The good practices
could be linked to implementing a policy or to provision of services like health
care, housing, care-giving, income security, rights and entitlements and any other
women empowerment related work that prepare them to deal with challenges at the
end of their lives.
The selection of good practices is based on an assessment formed out of these criteria:
- Scale - the project should have been implemented with a wider beneficiaries
group that provides enough evidence for it to be a good practice
- Effectiveness - the project should have the ability to bring about some visible
or measurable change in the life of aged women
- Innovative - the documentation should be able to indicate what is new and
unique about the initiative
- The Kolkata conference was held on the 21st April 2014. The conference was
in collaboration with Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
- Replicability - the project should have the potential to be duplicated in
other regions
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Project objectives are :
- To identify innovations and best practices for supporting the aged women
- To undertake policy advocacy and bring the issues and concerns of the aged women
on the agenda of the government agencies and departments
- To mainstream the issues and concerns of the aged women on the agenda of women’s
groups and other relevant agencies
- To mainstream the issues of aged women on the agenda of the CSR and Corporate Foundations
and motivate them to make resource commitment for the cause
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Recommendations emerging from the conference:
- Uniform retirement age and developing post retirement skills
- Commission for aged women within NCW to create legal awareness
- Free Travel Pass for elderly
- Inclusion of single women in welfare schemes
- Mandatory provision of health care for elderly women
- Importance of gerontology in (Medical) Education
- Intergenerational old age homes and community care
- Universal Pension scheme
- Tax concessions and reforms
- More involvement of CSR in work related to the elderly women
Case studies selected so far:
- Widows in Ashram- A case study of Sulabh International, Vrindaban and Benaras
- Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan- A Haven for Women Empowerment, Udaipur
- Financial Inclusion of elderly women in Gujarat- SEWA
- Farmers Widows of Vidarbha, A HelpAge case study
- International Longevity Center-1 project Pune
- Health care services-Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Kolkata
- Older Women in Institutions - A few Good Practices
- Working with Alzheimer's - Nightingale Medical Trust, Bangalore
- Kerala State Projects for the Elderly - A study from Thiruvantapuram
Important Milestones for SAFAW India
- Inclusion of Aged Women in Gender Manifesto published on 28th November, 2013 by
Center For Social Research & Women Power Connect New Delhi
- CSR and Elderly - As a result of constant lobbying and advocacy, the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs has added “elderly” to the CSR Agenda on 27 February, 2014
- Representation of Women and Ageing in the IFA Conference, Hyderabad 2014, where
the South Asia Forum for Aged Women presented its findings from the conferences
and case study documentation to advocates and experts from world over
- Inclusion of the issues of Women and Ageing in various women’s forums and initiatives
Way Forward
Stree Shakti- The Parallel Force envisages taking the SAFAW initiative to other
countries in South Asia.
The following is a vision of events and activities to strengthen
the South Asia network and give the issue of ‘Women and Ageing’ a greater voice:
- Collaborate with countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore and Thailand to form a stronger South Asia Forum
- Identify innovation of services provided or policy implementation to help elderly
women in these countries and document them as good practices
- Host Round Table Meetings in, Nepal, Bangkok and Singapore to begin interface with
China to take the issue of women and ageing beyond South Asia and build an interface
with China
- Organize a Photographic Exhibition of “Women and Ageing in South Asian Countries”
to raise awareness and advocate for their cause
- Disseminate the findings of the work done by all the countries represented in the
South Asia Forum in the next IFA conference to be held in Brisbane, Australia, 2016.
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