Case Study

    CASE STUDY

Rehmat Bibi, 76, is all alone in this world and selling handmade wood baskets for food. Although the old widow has a daughter, she lives with her husband.

She selling handmade wood baskets in this camp for over 20 years as my three sons married and leaves him alone.

Rehmat bibi said, “I have no family support and did not want to beg,”

She collects the river wood from very remote area of river chanab early in the morning and made them basket and sell them in Multan city. The old lady allows every customer to handmade wood baskets, and charges a lower price than other vendors beside her on the road.

Rehmat Bibi, is also witty and smart and knows about the financial crunch the country faces and the degenerating affairs of governance. There is no regular income. It fluctuates like the price of dollar against rupee. But she does manage to make Rs200 to Rs300, she claimed.

Rehmat Bibi, is one of hundreds of thousands of senior citizens who still work well beyond their capacity to make their ends meet. To date, there has been no official policy ever introduced by the federal government to address the concerns of the old people in the country.

According to DASE Foundation Pakistan working on social protection of the old people who are more than 60 years of age form seven per cent of the total population of the country. They are numbered over 10.2 million almost 52 per cent of this old age population in Pakistan are women while 48 per cent are men. However, most of the senior citizens who are women are widows.

They have no one to look after their health issues, food and other economic needs. Federal government has no major program for the protection of old age people and they also had to beg in the markets or were neglected by their family members.

A Senior Citizens’ Protection Bill is still pending with the government since 2007 in this situation DASE Foundation Pakistan is demanding the government to approve it since the bill has clauses in which government is expected to provide protection (economic, social and health) claimed the official of the non-governmental body.

On the other hand, that till the bill is approved there exists no strong social protection system for elderly people like Rehmat Bibi who are left on the mercy of the unsociable system.