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Social Security for Senior Citizen in Pakistan

Introduction:

People in the United States who are more than sixty years of age are commonly referred to as senior citizens or seniors. These terms refer to people whose stage in life is generally called old age, though there is no precise way to identify the final stage of a normal life span. People are said to be senior citizens when they reach the age of sixty or sixty-five because those are the ages at which most people retire from the workforce.

In Pakistan The number of elderly (aged 60 years and above) as enumerated in the 1998 population census is about eight million which is nearly 6 percent of the total population. In view of the recent decline registered in the fertility rate and rising life expectancy, this number is expected to increase further. It is estimated that the proportion of elderly population will increase to 15.7 percent in 2050. At the same time, the proportion aged 0-14 years is expected to decrease from 41.8 percent to 21.9 in 2050 [United Nations (2004)].

According to the ILO: "Social Security refers to the protection society provides to its members through a series of public measures against the economic and social distress. The social security cover must be provided in case of sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, invalidity, old age and death. The provision of medical care and subsidies for families with dependent children is also included in the social security coverage".

Types of Scheme

There are different types of scheme which is provided to the senior citizen of Pakistan.

These are the formal and informal schemes which are given below.

1. Formal Pension Scheme

The old age pension and social security schemes are the safety valves to protect vulnerable segments of the society against unforeseen circumstances. These measures provide a ray of hope to the elderly people who have limited economic options in their life. Social security and pension schemes are the right-based instruments with legal guarantees and are aimed at enabling people to better manage the social and economic risks, prevent them from sale of their assets in distress, provide them a system of income insurance to protect them through short-term stress and calamities, and take care of their long-term disability. In addition to retirement benefits, permanent workers in the formal sector tend to receive a wide range of employment-related benefits which include:

(a) Free or heavily subsidised medical care.

(b) Subsidized housing.

(c) Subsidised education for children,

(d) Employee shops

(e) Reservation of jobs for children.

It is observed that the schemes which apply to most federal employees and to provincial and district government employees are facing a severe financial viability problem.

2. INFORMAL SCHEMES

Government-funded social protection schemes in the informal sector refer to programmes that transfer money or goods to individuals that are not linked to contributions. They are usually, but not always, targeted at the poorest and needy. The main organizations providing social assistance are Zakat and Bait-ul- Mal which perform a wide range of programmes and the functions related to social protection.

(i)Zakat

Zakat is a state-based option for Muslims to meet their charitable obligations through a deduction once a year at the rate of 2.5 per cent on the value of certain financial assets. It applies only to Sunni Muslims and others can choose not to be included in the scheme and pay their zakat privately. Additionally, Ushr is a tax levied on agricultural produce for the same purpose but the system in practice is moribund and very small amounts are collected.

Types of Assistance under Zakat System

The Central Zakat Council decides the proportion of zakat funds to be spent on different categories. The main types of assistance for individuals are as follows.

(a) Guzara Allowance. This is an allowance of Rs 500 per month to persons identified by the local zakat committee as being the neediest in the locality. The allowance is supposed to be paid for six months and if a person is found to be no longer eligible, another needy person can be nominated to take their place.

(b) Educational Stipends. These are paid to poor students in mainstream schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities to help them pursue their education including Deeni Madaris (religious schools).

(c) Health Care. The local Zakat Committee Chairman decides who gets assistance for medical treatment and illness. Major tehsil and district level institutions receive a yearly allocation from the District Zakat Fund to be distributed among the deserved.

(d) Social Welfare and Marriage Assistance. This consists mainly of grants to social welfare institutions, largely those run by provincial welfare and labour departments to pay the fees of Mustahiq getting vocational training. Additionally, poor and deserving families are provided funds for the dowry on the occasion of their daughter's marriage.

(2)Bait-ul-Mal

Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal is a semi-autonomous organization within the Ministry of Women Development, Welfare and Special Education with a mandate to provide social assistance to the deserving poor and needy people including the elderly. It took over the functions of the previous National Zakat Foundation (not to be confused with the still-continuing Zakat programme discussed earlier). Unlike Zakat, Bait-ul-Mal benefits are open to all regardless of creed and the funds are entirely controlled by public servants.

(a) Food Support Programm

The largest programme under Bait-ul-Mal is the Food Support Programme for the poor that provides Rs 2400 a year in two six-monthly installments. The programme guidelines require that assistance be provided to "needy individuals having no support or source of income in following order of priority:

(a) Individual with major ailments/ disability;

(b) Widow with dependent children;

(c) Invalid with dependent children;

(d) Infirm (senior citizens above);

(e) Poorest of the poor to be reviewed periodically for rehabilitation; and

(f) Orphans, destitute and victims of unpredictable circumstances.

Different types of institution for Senior Citizen

i) Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI)

This scheme was launched in July 1976 to provide coverage to workers employed by industrial and commercial enterprises with ten or more employees, irrespective of their status.

ii) Employees Social Security Institutions (ESSI)

This scheme was introduced in March 1967 and reorganized on a provincial basis in Sindh, Punjab and NWFP in July 1970. A Provincial Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI) was established headed by a Commissioner with a Board of Trustees including the representatives of employers, workers, and Government.

iii) Compulsory Group Insurance Scheme, 1968

This scheme is mandatory for employers of the industrial and commercial establishments to insure all permanent employees against natural death, disability and injury arising out of contingencies not covered by the Workman Compensation Act, 1923, or the Employees Social Security Ordinance, 1965.

iv) Senior citizens foundation (SCEP)

The Senior Citizen Foundation of Pakistan is a non-governmental, non-profit organization militating for the importance of the well-being of Pakistan's senior citizens. The Senior Citizens Foundation works mainly as an advocacy group to persuade the government and the community to pay greater attention to the needs of senior citizens and to ensure their comfort and dignity. It aims at improving the quality of life and well-being of senior citizens and ensuring social and economic security.

Economic benefits of social security for senior citizen.

The system of social security in developed countries is well established giving coverage to most of the population. However, expenditures on ‘pay-as-you-go' public pensions schemes, which involve monetary transfers from younger to older generations are becoming increasingly burdensome on the contributors and eventually unsustainable as old-age dependency rates continue to increase. Hence, the change in the structure of their population has long-term implications for their fiscal resources.

In developing countries including Pakistan, on the other hand, the process of ageing is well on its way due to declining trends in mortality and fertility levels and an increase in the average span of life in recent decades. The changing demographic and social trends in terms of shifts from extended to a more nuclear family system has raised concerns about the rising old-age dependency ratio and the adequacy of future family support for the elderly. The effects of an ageing population in these countries is becoming apparent in terms of increasing costs of health-care systems, social security and old age benefits, and problems of family relationships and changing social attitudes towards older people. As such, new challenges of meeting the needs of the increasing population of the elderly have emerged that demand an assessment of the support base and social security system. With a large population base such as that of Pakistan, the absolute and the relative size of the elderly population and those living in poor socio-economic conditions is expected to be large enough to put substantial burden on the budgets for pensions and social security schemes.

About the Author

Saima Rani, Scientific Officer

Zahid Akram, Advocate

What is the big uproar about The Golden Compass?

Is it the Daemon thing?

I think the film is lovely, if a little slow and is less theocratic than the novel in that the absolute rule of the quasi religious body, the Magisterium, was severly underplayed. The truth is that the religious bigot and the zealot and those lacking confidence in their faiths will castigate the films that dare to offer a different viewpoint to the standard Christian belief. I dont believe that the soul made corporeal in the form of daemons is the unsettling aspect for the unimaginative detractor of this film. It is the use of children to defy and bring down the establishment that they find unacceptable. This opens up the possibility that chidren dont have to believe as their parents do...a fundamentalist nightmare.
In the final analysis, these films are entertainment, not propaganda and the world will be a finer place when the neurotic amongst us cease to look for gremlins under the beds!

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