Sri Lanka’s elderly population is on the rise compared to the rest of the world

• There were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019. The number of older persons is projected to double to 1.5 billion by 2050. Globally the share of the population aged 65 years or over increased from 6% in 1990 to 9% in 2019
• The elderly population in Sri Lanka reached 3.6 million in 2019 which is 12.4% of the total population. Sri Lanka is one country in the world that has a rapidly aging population and is much above the global ratio
• Never complain about what your parents couldn’t give you, probably it was all that they had to give, and yet they choose to give it all to you
• One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad

We Asians are brought up in a culture in which parents have done everything for their children from nurturing, educating, teaching the essence of life and until one is given in marriage irrespective of gender. They are even saddled with looking after the grandchildren with much love and passion in their old age.

For parents who have sacrificed their whole life unconditionally do we reciprocate only on Father’s Day or Mother’s Day? Is this what they expect from their children? When parents have given 24x7 of their life while one single day to be allocated from the year towards them. It’s a shame, falling prey to these Western marketing gimmicks and  ignoring what our culture had demonstrated for thousands of years.
We need to take care of our parents with all due respect for the sacrifices made by them and not by allocating one single day and adorning them with flowers while most sit lonely at a home for the elders counting the days for Mothers or Father’s Day to appear on the calendar.

We notice in social media many global giants bragging about social obligations towards the underprivileged and touch on the most sensitive topics while their contributions do not exceed more than 0.5% but much hype is created. Meanwhile, they thrive on the numbers and $ with profitability touching on these sensitive topics to milk the situation which the reader and educated citizens realize 
much better.

Meanwhile falling prey to such marketing ploys, the neglect of elders occur when someone fails to properly take care of an elderly person being your parents or relative. A caring person may be a family member or someone responsible for caring for the person. Neglect can happen in the person’s own home, the care home, or a facility such as a nursing/home for the aged. With the aging population rising and siblings getting much tied down with their work, we could only see an escalating issue on the rise.  
There were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019. The number of older persons is projected to double to 1.5 billion by 2050. Globally the share of the population aged 65 years or over increased from 6% in 1990 to 9% in 2019.

The elderly population in Sri Lanka reached 3.6 million in 2019 which is 12.4% of the total population. Sri Lanka is one country in the world that has a rapidly aging population and is much above the global ratio.
Taking into account this factor as a paramount issue, we should work our economic policies towards  the aging population as well by introducing

1.Raising the retirement age
2.Pension for those in the low-income group
3.Increase importance of private sector providing pension and health care
4.Increase income tax to pay pension costs, not on other unwanted factors.

Having said that, we need to give back quality time that was given to us by our parents unconditionally when each one of us were toddlers.
I leave my thoughts with the following quotes:-
Never complain about what your parents couldn’t give you, probably it was all that they had to give, and yet they choose to give it all to you.
One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.