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Ageing population a time bomb, take urgent action, warns UN report | | The world needs to take urgent action to cope with the impact of a rapidly ageing population, as the number of older than the age of 60 would possibly surpass one billion within a decade, a new United Nations (UN) report
has warned. The report warned that the growing numbers of the elderly presented significant challenges to welfare, pension and health care systems in both developing
and developed nations. "We must commit to ending the widespread mismanagement of ageing, and that the vast majority of people will live into old age. By revolutionising our approach and investing in people as they age we can build stronger, wealthier
societies," The Telegraph quoted Richard Blewitt, chief executive of HelpAge International,
which collaborated on the report, Ageing in the 21st Century, as saying. The report
also bemoans the fact that skills and knowledge that older people have acquired
are going to waste in societies rather than being used to their full.
According to the paper, calling the ageing demographic a "megatrend that is transforming
economies and societies around the world", the report estimated that one in nine
people of the world's population of seven million are over 60. The report forecasts
that the size of the elderly population is expected to swell by 200 million within
10 years past the one billion mark and soar to two billion by 2050. "The expected
growth of the population of older persons should not be an excuse not to act but
rather seen as a call to action. A well supported old age is in the interest of
all generations," the 192-page report stated.
The report said that the most serious
impact of ageing populations would be in developing countries without safety nets
or adequate legal protection in place for older people. The also report expressed
concern "about the multiple discrimination experienced by older persons, particularly
older women, including access to jobs and health care, subjection to abuse, denial
of the right to own and inherit property and lack of basic minimum income and
social security," the paper said.
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