Empowering Senior Citizens

KOMPAS/ADITYA PUTRA PERDANA

Residents exercise on Aug. 9 at the Wisma Lansia Harapan Asri nursing home in Banyumanik subdistrict, Semarang, Central Java. The nursing home provides care for 68 elderly residents who hail from Semarang and its surrounding areas, as well as from Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java and Palembang, South Sumatra.

Indonesia is the midst of a demographic bonus, but it must prepare to enter the period of an aging population at the same time. Improvements in social welfare, including health care and education, have contributed to an increase in life expectancy; the consequence is a growing elderly population.

According to the 2015-2045 inter-census survey, people aged 65 years and above currently account for 6.51 percent of the country’s 266.911 million population. The proportion of elderly will continue to increase to approach 18 percent by 2045, or around 57 million people.

At present, public discourse focuses more on taking advantage of the demographic bonus from a productive age population (15 to 64) that is greater than the non-productive population.

The productive age population will contribute to improving social welfare and national competitiveness – provided that they have good education, health and nutrition.

Many countries became wealthy because they were able to take advantage of their demographic bonuses. Looking at a number of aging countries, such as Japan and China, these governments provide special attention to the elderly in their population policies. In addition to encouraging young couples to have children, these governments also provide health facilities and services to help the elderly continue to be productive for social, cultural and economic reasons.

Indonesian people are accustomed to seeing elderly people remain productive. Many elderly people do not want to do nothing, while others may not have many choices but continue to work because they have no savings or other assets.

Anticipating an increasing population of elderly citizens and a declining population of productive-age people, the next Cabinet must start to make preparations now as part of President Joko Widodo’s human development program.

Furthermore, the President stressed that no one should be left behind in Indonesia\'s progress. This is an opportunity as well as a challenge, considering that most of the elderly population have only received schooling up to the secondary level and we are entering the era of Industry 4.0.

KOMPAS/ADITYA PUTRA PERDANA

A woman shops at Ngancar market on Sunday (18/8/2019) in Banyudono district of Boyolali, Central Java. Central Java has the largest elderly population in the archipelago.

In order not to become a burden in their latter days, preparations to meet elderly needs must start now, such as social security, healthcare services, transportation, public facilities and elderly care facilities.

The government’s skills improvement program should also include senior citizens who still want to work, for example by helping them to become entrepreneurs.

Several world research centers have conducted a number of studies to prolong human life and prevent death, as Yuval Noah Harari has interestingly noted in in his book, Homo Deus. The body\'s cells are prevented from degenerating. This will be an opportunity and a challenge for the future population that also needs to be anticipated starting today.