Impact of old age allowance among rural aged : An empirical investigation

Evidences of the recognition of the elderly rights at the state level are found in the constitution of Bangladesh. However, the aged people are facing various unexpected sufferings, which are caused by poverty and health related complications. Considering the pitiful financial conditions of aged, the Government of Bangladesh launched a Social Safety Net Program (SSNP) namely Old Age Allowance Program (OAAP) from 1997. The aim of the present study is to assess the impact of OAAP on elderly welfare in the rural areas of Bangladesh. For this, data were collected from 344 (22% of total recipients) beneficiaries using simple random sampling technique from Godagari Upazilla of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. Face-to-face interview was conducted with a structured questionnaire. Descriptive analyses of data using various statistical tools such as frequency distribution, percentage distribution and chi-square test were made to trace out the impact of OAAP. It is found from the study that OAA helped aged persons to be placed in a better position, earn respect in the society and to their family members as well, though they are not satisfied with the amount of allowance. In other words, the small amount of OAA has limited economic impact on the aged people. But the social impact of this allowance is more significant. The aged people have accepted this program positively. It is high time to think and to take long-term phase by phase sustainable aging policies with the inclusion of this issue in the country’s five year planning.


INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh, the eighth largest (153 million in 2012) and one of the most densely (1062 persons per sq.km. in 2012) populated countries in the world (PRB, 2012).It has started to experience another emerging issue of population ageing in its highly vulnerable population and development context (BBS, 2008).In 1951, elderly people (aged 60+) constitute nearly 4.4% of the population of the country (BBS, 2007).But it constitutes 7% of the population of the country in 2012 and this figure is predicted to rise to 22% by 2050 (UN, 2012).
Most of the aged people in the country usually do not have economic provisions such as savings or monthly pension to take care of their financial well-being.They do not have other option but to depend on others such as their children which often gives them the feeling that they are some kind of burden on their families.The Constitution of Bangladesh pronounced certain rights to under privileged people of the country since its adoption in 1972.Article 15(D) of the Constitution stipulates that state will provide necessary assistance to the people having insecurity from unemployment, old age, widowhood, loss of parents or physical and mental disabilities.As a result, Social Safety Net Programs (SSNPs) have been pursued by successive governments as an effective tool to combat poverty and to bring the distressed people into social inclusion.E-mail: srcswru@yahoo.com.Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has initiated a number of SSNPs in the country both in the form of 'cash' and 'kind' transfers.Current social protections under the SSNPs in Bangladesh can be summarized in Figure 1.Old Age Allowance Program (OAAP) is a cash transfer program in which the beneficiaries are the destitute elderly of the society.The World Bank (2013) Group defines cash transfer as the provision of assistance in the form of cash to the poor or to those who face probable risk, in the absence of the transfer, of falling into poverty.
The program was launched in 1997 to 1998 fiscal year by the Ministry of Social Welfare (MoSW) in order to ease the plight of the targeted old people by providing them a direct provision of monthly allowance to defray some of their costs of living.The annual distribution of OAA, number of beneficiaries and related information since its inception is presented in Table 1.SSNPs are seen as an effective instrument for reducing the vulnerabilities of distressed population across the globe (Rook, 2011)  remaining unsatisfied in many cases (Hossain, 2007).
From policy perspective, OAAP demands a systematic study to review its targeting mechanism and its gradual expansion both in terms of coverage and amount of allowance.So, the present study has been designed to explore the impact of OAA on elderly welfare in the rural areas of Bangladesh.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To obtain specific and reliable feedback, the area of this study has been confined to an Upazilla, named Godagari of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh and the beneficiaries getting the OAA at least from last two years (24 months) were considered as respondents in this study.There are nine unions (the smallest rural administrative and local government units in Bangladesh) in this Upazilla.Out of these unions, a total of 344 respondents (about 22% of the total OAA recipients of the union) were selected from four unions of this Upazilla following simple random sampling technique as presented in Table 2.The respondents were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire of which 50% are male and 50% are female.Well known statistical tools such as frequency distribution, percentage distribution and chi-square test were used to analyze the data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Besides, several types of books, journals, dailies and research papers were used as secondary sources.Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance are the most significant secondary sources of this study.

Age of the respondents
In both the cases of population and sample, the standard deviation represents the average variability in a population.The greater this variability around the mean of a distribution, the larger is the standard deviation.From Table 3, it is seen that the mean age of 344 respondents is 71.42 years with a range of 50 to 120 years and a standard deviation of 7.69 years.It implies that 328 (about 95%)

Time duration and amount
The time duration of getting OAA (in months) was categorized into four groups as 24 to 48 months, 49 to 72 months, 73 to 96 months, and 97 and above months respectively.From Table 4, it is found that about 83.4% of the respondents were getting allowances for 24 to 48 months and only 2.6% were getting for 73 to 96 months.The number of male respondents was higher (4.1% higher) than the female respondents who were getting allowances for 24 to 48 months.

Old age allowance (OAA) and position of the elderly
In consideration of gender, before receiving allowance, only 4.7% male respondents were in a satisfactory position with their families.But after receiving OAA, it was increased to 59.3% (Table 5).In a study, Ahmad (1991) defines the social security as public action including that by communities, to protect the poor and vulnerable from adverse changes in living standards.Again the study shows that before receiving OAA, 2.9% of the female respondents were in a satisfactory position with family while after receiving, it was increased to 60.0%.On the other hand, in case of before receiving allowance, 30.8% male respondents were in a non-satisfactory position with family while after receiving, it was decreased by 7.6% and before receiving allowance, 28.5% of the female respondents were in a non-satisfactory position with family while after receiving, it was decreased to 4.0% (Table 5).
In Bangladesh, adult children, particularly sons, are considered to be the main source of security and economic support to their parents, particularly in the time of disaster, sickness and in old age (Cain, 1986).So, it is very important to assess the relation of elderly people with the family members.In Table 6, the relation of the respondents with the sons, daughters, neighbors and relatives before and after getting OAA were presented.The results show that the relationship with son increased satisfactorily from 9.6 to 61.9%, with daughters, it increased from 21.5% to 66.0% and with relatives, and it increased from 33.1 to 73.0%.This implies that the OAA has a positive role in improving the status of the aged to the family.
The study shows that before receiving of OAA, only 10% male respondents were in a satisfactory position while after receiving, it had increased up to 72.1%.Before receiving allowance 2.3% female respondents were in a satisfactory position in society while after receiving it had increased up to 72.7%.On the other hand, before receiving allowance 23.3% male respondents were in an unsatisfactory position in society while after receiving case, it had decreased to 5.2%.And before receiving of OAA, 16.9% female respondents were in unsatisfactory position in society while after receiving; it had decreased to 2.3% (Table 7).

Association between the respondents and the effect of OAA
Although the monthly amount of OAA to elderly was very small, it has been a very good starting and initiative from the government.Considering this, respondents were asked about the effect of this initiative in their practical life.In Table 8, it is clearly shown that about 90% of the respondents' situation improved.It also indicated that females (about 7.6%) were more satisfied than their male counterpart.In addition, to see the association between the respondents' and their opinion, 2  test was carried out.At 5% level of significance with 2 degrees of freedom (d.f.), the tabulated value of 2  was 5.999.This is lower than the calculated value of 2  , being 6.002.So, it can be said that there is a significant association between Gender of the elderly and their   opinion about the effect of OAA.

Opinion about the present amount
Most of the people of Bangladesh are poor and they live from hand to mouth.So, any kind of support from any corners however little it may be, would be considered as very helpful to the poor.Hasan (2012) in a study showed that OAAP can not make any body rich but nobody will die without food now because of this program.From Table 9, it is found that more than 90% of the elder (both male and female) said that the existing amount is not sufficient for maintaining a minimum standard of living in Bangladesh.

Conclusion and policy recommendations
Elderly populations are the asset of any nation and OAAP has created a significant sense of solidarity among the elderly poor.A universal agreement among the policy makers regarding the ageing issues signifies the importance of the issues in the national developmental agenda.From the study, it is clear that the position of the elderly in the family and their relationship with the family members (with the sons, daughters, neighbors and relatives) has increased after getting the OAA (Tables 5  and 6).They termed the existing amount of OAA as insufficient (Table 9) and it should be increased significantly (Table 8).The results also showed that the OAAP has an effect to uplift the social position of the elderly people but it is not statistically significant (Table 7).Many lessons can be learned from industrial societies who are facing the problems associated with their increasing aged people and it is appropriate time for Bangladeshi policy makers to give due importance to the forthcoming age wave especially prioritizing the following programs: i.The amount of money and the number of beneficiaries under OAAP should be increased, ii.The elderly should be provided community based services with their active involvement, iii.Government should try/make efforts to achieve the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) regarding ageing, involving all the related organizations of the government and non-government sectors.

Table 2 .
Study areas and sample size at a glance.

Table 3 .
Descriptive statistics related to age of the respondents.

Table 4 .
Respondents according to the duration and amount of getting OAA.
Note: Values in the parenthesis indicate percentage of the respondents.

Table 5 .
Position of the elderly in family.

Table 6 .
Relation with the family members before and after getting OAA.
Note: Values in the parenthesis indicate percentage of the respondents.

Table 7 .
Role of OAA to uplift the social position of the elderly people.

Table 8 .
Relationship between the respondents and their opinion about the effect of OAA.
Note: Values in the parenthesis indicate percentage of the respondents.

Table 9 .
Opinion of the respondents about the present amount.
Note: Values in the parenthesis indicate percentage of the respondents.