Elders to comprise 25% of Lanka’s population by 2025

Nadira Gunatilleke

COLOMBO: Elders will comprise 25 percent of Sri Lanka’s population by 2025. One in four Sri Lankans will fall into the Elderly category. At the moment the elders form 10 per cent of the total population while the percentage of disabled people are between seven to 10 per cent.

Another 20 per cent of our population comprises children. When considering these percentages it is obvious that a significant portion of the total population are dependents, Social Services and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lionel Premasiri said.

Addressing the International Elders’ Day celebration held at the BMICH, Colombo on Monday Minister Premasiri said that most countries have successfully faced the problem of dealing with their dependent population and Sri Lanka will also have to plan well ahead in order to face the problem.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s concept is granting a pension to all. At the moment there are one million persons in the public sector and six million employees in the private sector. Now the Social Security Board functions under the purview of Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry is offering an opportunity for Government pensions to all.

Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry Secretary Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Jegarasasingam said, “that there is a famous saying that “Old is Gold”. This is the first time in the history where both public and private sector joined hands to celebrate International Elders’ Day.

Describing the different services carried out by the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry she said that special identity cards have been issued to 650,000 elders so far and elders committees have been set up countrywide.

The ministry is paying each committee Rs. 5,000. Over 200 day care centres have been set up in different parts of the country. All the ministry secretaries have been educated on the facilities and services that should be made available for the elders.

Awards were presented to Dr. Leel Gunasekara, Jezeema Ismail, J. Thamber and Mrs. Sivanandani Doresamy recognising their service. Pensions were awarded to some recipients.

Chairman, HelpAge, Tilak de Soyza, Dr. Leel Gunasekara and several others spoke. Officials from the Social Services and Social Welfare Ministry, HelpAge, Prof. Kusuma Karunaratne and several elders were present.