Experts urge flexible retirement and better elderly care as Sri Lanka ages rapidly

• Raising retirement age to 70 more realistic, says IHP head
• Six percent of population to be over 80 by 2050
•  UNFPA flagged Sri Lanka’s ageing trend as early as 2012

By Shannine Daniel

With a quarter of Sri Lanka’s population projected to be over the age of 60 by the early 2040s, experts are calling for more flexible retirement policies, adaptable working conditions, and stronger elderly care systems.

The current minimum retirement age for most public and private sector workers is 60 years, under the Minimum Retirement Age of Workers Act of 2021, with exceptions for public sector employees in specialised roles.

“We should ensure that people above 60 have a more productive working life and do not become completely dependent on the younger generations,” said Dr. Bilesha Weeraratne, Head of Migration and Urbanisation Policy Research at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Sri Lanka, during a recent online discussion organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

“Realistically, we should think of raising our retirement age to 70 years,” said Dr. Ravindra P. Rannan-Eliya, Executive Director of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), who also joined the discussion. He noted that there should be exceptions for those engaged in physically demanding or manual jobs.

Drawing parallels with regional trends, Dr. Weeraratne said that in South Korea, about 25 percent of people aged over 80 are still employed. Dr. Rannan-Eliya added that Singapore too has created more opportunities for older citizens to remain in the workforce.

“Since we have an ageing population, we should not let our skilled workers retire too soon. We should let them train the younger generations,” Dr. Weeraratne said, calling for flexible work arrangements such as remote or hybrid models.

Currently, only 2 percent of Sri Lanka’s population is aged above 80, but Dr. Rannan-Eliya said this share is expected to rise to 6 percent by 2050. He warned that this would leave the country’s ageing population increasingly vulnerable, as many younger Sri Lankans migrate and are less likely to care for elderly relatives.

“At some point, we are going to have to employ people to take care of the elderly. We cannot continue to rely on unpaid care work by young family members, especially women,” he said, urging government intervention to strengthen formal care services.

Dr. Weeraratne also pointed to the limited care options available in Sri Lanka and called for alternative community-based arrangements, such as centres, clubs or societies that not only care for but also actively engage the elderly.
Sri Lanka was identified as one of South Asia’s fastest-ageing societies in a 2012 UNFPA report, and experts say the trend has accelerated, posing challenges for the labour market and social protection systems as the country’s working-age population continues to shrink.