“Even though, the growing ageing population and the concomitant changes this will bring are viewed as a major socio-economic challenge for Guyana, other competing development priorities have overtaken the national agenda. Besides political will, careful planning led by the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, with other related government ministries, non-governmental sectors and individuals is required to ensure that economic security, health and caring, and environmental systems remain sustainable into the future.” (Guyana’s National Report on Aging:” 2012)
As we shall see, outside of perhaps the introduction of the national water subsidies, there has been no substantial government addition to the services available to the elderly over the last decade. No one expects the government of Guyana to provide either the quantity or quality of services which exist in a developed country, yet what the Report outlined as available to our elderly population can only be described as paltry.
First, it points to the annual increases in the old age pensions as one positive intervention. Recently after some significant pressure from the opposition, the government conceded to increase the old age pensions to $10,000 but only the most careless would want to suggest that this sum is sufficient to maintain anyone and the regime has admitted that its pensions are not intended to be the sole source of maintenance. Nevertheless, the 2002 census suggests that more than 66% of the elderly depend on pension for their maintenance and given the level of inflation this country has historically suffered and the miserly wages that have been paid over decades, it is anyone’s guess how the aged are expected to sustain themselves.
Second, there is the national water subsidies that are provided to the elderly who are registered as customers with the Guyana Water Inc. According to the Report pensioners who receive the government old age pension in Georgetown and in rural areas are granted a yearly subsidy of $11,800 and $8,976 respectively and the “Government reported that this payment accounted for GY$3.6 billion of public expenditure in 2011.” Even if all the approximate 32,000 over 65 pensioners given in the Report, received the annual subsidy of an average of $10,000, this could not amount to billions stated in the Report so something is amiss here!
Then there is the annual government grant of G$30,000 given to 10 privately-run elderly long-stay facilities.
The Report argued that although traditionally families were expected to take care of the elderly, with more women joining the workforce, over the last ten years the demand for home based care services and day nurses and care givers has increased and there is the need for these privately-run long stay institutions and other home-based caregiver services to be effectively monitored by the state. Not surprisingly it also went on to state that the government subvention is grossly inadequate and that a revised formula “based on objective criteria versus the current arbitrary subventions is desirable.”
Fourth and relatedly, a new recreation facility, exercise and reading rooms and canteen service has been established at the Palms Geriatric Home which is “the sole government run long-stay institution;” a home care pilot scheme for vulnerable persons, including the elderly in Region 6; a Veterans-Home which has been built with public and private support to house a few former police, Guyana Defence Force and Fire Service personnel and the commencement of construction of the 300-bed residential centre for rehabilitation and reintegration at Onverwagt are also noteworthy. Another intervention is the 2005 private initiative of Nigel’s Supermarket which introduced a Senior citizen shopping discount as part of what it viewed as its corporate responsibility. This initially provided the elderly with a 5% discounted on groceries once a week. However, the proprietors later bowed to the request of seniors and at the time this Report was being written, the concession, which is noted as a best practice which could be replicated and the proprietors commended, is available every day.
Then there is the free public transportation to be provided by the government managed Transport and Harbours Department but as the Report noted currently the government does not provide any transport outside of ferry crossings!
Finally, the priority service lines which some private sector and public sector organisations provide for seniors, the dedication of the entire month of October instead of simply a day as the International Day for Older Persons and the establishment of the National Commission on the Elderly which I have pointed out in a previous article was moribund are all recorded as “modest but significant achievements in favour of Guyana’s ageing population.”
The PPP/C’s government has been in place for some two decades and cannot avoid much of the blame for the dire condition in which the elderly presently find themselves. However, the demand for the establishment and protection of the right of the elderly has been around for many decades and as we have seen it has been on the international agenda even before the 1980s.
Surely then, the neglect of the elderly over all these years cannot be placed only at the door of the current regime. Indeed, given the defensive nature of this government, any attempt to do so will only drown this deserving agenda in a barrage of propaganda, an element of which will be the regime’s perennial and not unjustified claim that when it came to office old age pension was less than $300 per month while today, in real terms, it is significantly more at $10,000.
What the elderly now need is not this kind of distraction and division but the nurturing of a national (as opposed to party political) agenda that could improve their condition. The Report under consideration was concluded for and was presented to the Third Regional Intergovernmental Conference on Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean held in Costa Rica in May, 2012.
That conference adopted the San José Charter which called upon all states to “Adopt appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures which guarantee differential, preferential treatment of older persons in all spheres and prohibit all forms of discrimination against them.”
In this context, the government of Guyana has committed itself to devising and implementing a programme to improve the condition of the elderly in the next five years and the final article in this series will consider these commitments and the recommendations made in the Report.
henryjeffrey@yahoo.com
