Problem of the older person: A study on a village

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ‘Problem of the Older Person: A Study on a village and my supervisor name is Dr. Md. Nurul Islam, the institute of social welfare and research that was carried out at Karatia village in Tangail district of Bangladesh. In this study, information was gathered from 50 respondents through pre-tested questionnaire from that village. Additionally, 10 in-depth case studies also were done to disclose the overall problems of the older persons and depict the hidden realities of that vulnerable group. In this study, information was gathered from both sexes to maintain gender balance and to delimitate the problems of both male and female older. The major findings of this study showed that due changes in family structure and turning into nuclear family system, it made abject the older to get accompany of their nearer and dearer ones. I also found that most of respondents prefer to spend their leisure time by religiosity. The findings showed that the highest percentage of the respondents spent their time by doing religious activities like praying, puja, milad etc., the figure was 64 percent. Some respondents also like spend their leisure time with their family members. The important finding of my study is that female is more vulnerable and abject to miseries in their old age in comparison to male to their counterparts, partly because of patriarchal social structure. Most of the elderly women suffer from various chronic diseases like back pain, insomnia, joint pain, and breathing problem with uterine prolepses. Despite their sufferings, most of the family members do not care for them. I devised the perception of older people to alleviate the problems and miseries of the older people in old age. Most of the respondents chose the initial alleviation of their problems by increasing the old age allowance. Though some respondents replied that they receive allowance from government services but they claimed that the amount of money is too sufficient to survive. Other poor respondents claimed that they do not receive government allowance as they exclude in selection process due to nepotism. Older person follow various strategies to survive, though they are to lead a poor and miser life. Additionally, Elderly are the most vulnerable and susceptible to problems whether it might be physical, mental or social. Almost every elderly people have addictions that make them susceptive to more diseases like Biri, Cigarette, betel leaf, gul or like that. Furthermore, with increasing age, the power of decision making within the family decreased as found in my study. Even, whenever their economic power loses, they are started to consider as burden for the family, largely for society. They mostly stated that they cannot tolerate the criticism of others in this age and they demanded more care and adorable behavior from family members mostly. They also demanded to ensure workplace suitable with their physical structure as if they might support in their old age. They also demanded to establish to more old house and creating an artificial environment where they might pass their pas-time by gossiping. They think that in their old age, they become more vulnerable and abject physically that requires physical treatment. Hence they should be provided treatment and medicine in free of cost. In also put my observation on them and found that their overall clothing was not neat clean, hair was not combed, and the nail of hands and legs were not clean and small though with some exceptions. These findings showed the miseries of the older generation of today. I also sorted out some suggestions on the basis of my findings and hope that if these measures might be initiated fully, the vulnerabilities of the older would alleviate, at a little and the days of shiny will show soon.