The role of non-governmental organizations for the welfare of the elderly: the case of HelpAge India

Since there has been a gradual increase in the population aged 60 and older, a developing country like India is unable to cope with the needs and problems of its aged populations. While the government continues its efforts to introduce programs for the elderly, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played a key role in bringing to the forefront the socioeconomic and health problems of older people in the society at large. This paper looks at the role of the NGOs through their various welfare activities and beneficial programs in carving out a place for the elderly in India. The work of HelpAge India is highlighted to examine how voluntary organizations have worked in the field of aging in India and made an impact on the lives of the senior citizens, especially those below the poverty line who are economically and socially deprived.     

Issues of Elder Care and Elder Abuse in the Indian Context

Summary

With 7% of the population of India being elderly, two-thirds of whom live in villages and nearly a half of them in poor conditions, the care of the elderly is a difficult problem to be tackled. The dwindling of the joint family, the rise of dual-career families, a possible shift in filial piety values, the increasing life expectancy with greater chances of a prolonged old age characterized by poverty, degeneration, more empty-nest years, and dependency, have all added to the seriousness of the problem and made the elderly more susceptible than ever to abusive treatment. This paper examines these issues as well as the issue of elder abuse in light of available data and suggests some strategies to meet the problem. Also discussed are the problems, stresses, and strains of caregivers of the elderly. A greater role is envisaged for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) than the state in the care of the elderly, particularly in providing support services to family caregivers.     

Towards a Policy for Aging in India

Summary

India has been engaged in developing the National Policy for elderly for the last two decades. The efforts to establish a policy began building on traditional values, a small number of pre-independence enactments. Lawgivers of India spoke of the rights of the elderly and the responsibility of the state towards them almost 2000 years ago. Additional factors such as culture, social norms, and influence of international organizations, particularly the Vienna Plan of Action, have been responsible for shaping the Policy. The Plan of Action agreed upon at the end of the Vienna meeting could not come into being due to several reasons such as the size of the country and its federal structure. This article takes an overview of the efforts made by the federal government and the NGOs to create a National Policy. The article describes the process by which the National Policy came into being and provides an overview and critique of the present Policy. The author makes a summary of the major areas of action suggested by the Policy, the strategies designed, and the implementation roles of different Ministries. The author describes the steps taken since 1999 and provides the concluding remarks.     

Old-Age Homes and Services

Summary

Although generational co-residence continues to be the dominant form of housing and care for Indian elders and only 1% live in old-age homes, the numbers and types of these homes are growing. This article describes a recent study of 48 old-age homes in different parts of India, approximately 12%-15% of all homes. They included the more traditional free homes for the aged poor who have no family to care for them and the more recent for-pay homes for the middle-class. A small number of day-care centers, also a new phenomenon, were investigated. Two- to three-hour structured interviews were conducted with managers, supervisors, and trustees, augmented by a checklist of environmental and neighborhood features. Most homes house small numbers of residents, have common spaces for dining, TV and prayer, have access to medical care and transportation, provide meals and some assistance with activities of daily living, and are open to all castes. All are run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), only one-third with any government assistance. Free homes tend to be bigger and older, serve non-aged clients, have less privacy and emphasize occupational therapy and income-generating activities, and are more like board-and-care homes. For-pay homes have more privacy and western-style amenities, focus on local community outreach and provide fewer meals. The gradual increase of all old-age homes has given rise to debates about their appropriate roles in Indian society and about their quality. Government grants to NGOs for homes and day-care centers (often considered more appropriate support for elders) are limited. With the National Policy on Older Persons looking to NGOs and village councils to be the primary sources of non-familial aged care, several ways to build their capacity are suggested.     

Economic Security for the Elderly in India

Summary

The basic concept of social security is not new in India. Traditionally, a sort of moral economy existed to provide security to older destitute and other vulnerable groups in society. However, gradually, traditional support systems are disappearing, and state-based social security systems have come into existence. Under standardized economic security policies, government is covering retirement benefits for those in the organized sector; economic security benefits for those in the unorganized sector; and old-age pension for rural elderly. These are contributory as well as non-contributory programs. Besides life insurance approaches, savings-linked insurance and Annapurna (food security) are other important programs. However, in terms of coverage, program quality and effectiveness have been largely criticized by social security experts, suggesting immediate reforms to old-age programs.     

Setting the Agenda

Abstract

Foreign funding for women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during democratic transition plays a crucial role in shaping values and attitudes within civil society. Concepts of feminism, gender equality and the role of women in democratic politics are affected by the discourse established by foreign funders. In this article, the role of US and Nordic gender policies are examined in the Estonian context using a feminist constructivist framework. I explore the effects of neoliberal versus social-democratic gender policies and conclude that, while funding for women's NGOs serves to create a necessary discourse on women's equality, these policies may actually serve the funders' needs to gain geopolitical influence in the region.     

Investigating the Role of Internet Self-Efficacy in the Elderly's Learning of ICT in Hong Kong,China: A Two-Part Study

SUMMARY

This paper discusses the role of Internet self-efficacy and outcome expectations in the elderly's usage of the Internet through a two-part study. The researchers conducted this study by collaborating with three non-government organizations (NGOs) for which funding was received from one government unit and a large local charitable organization. A new theoretical model was developed to examine the influence of Internet self-efficacy and outcome expectations on usage intention and perceived user competence. Behavioral modeling training courses were offered to mature adults aged 50 and above in two separate studies over a year. Questionnaire surveys and cognitive knowledge assessments were conducted. In general, the findings in the two studies validated the impacts of Internet self-efficacy and outcome expectations on usage intention. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed.     

Women's NGOs at UN Conferences: The 1992 Rio Conference on the Environment as a Watershed Event

SUMMARY

Before the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Brazil in 1992, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in UN conferences was limited. NGOs participate in UN conferences in two ways, at a non-governmental forum usually convened simultaneously with an official UN conference, or as accredited observers to the official conference where government delegations meet and make decisions. Only 200 NGOs were granted access to the official portion of the Decade for Women Conference held in Nairobi in 1985, whereas 1,400 organizations were accredited to attend UNCED in Rio in 1992. And while only a small portion, about 5 percent, of those were women-oriented NGOs, they had a significant impact on the outcome. An entire chapter on women and environmental issues was added to the official conference document, and cross-cutting references to women were included throughout the document. This achievement reflects the work of several uniquely placed women, in and outside governments and the United Nations system, working together to build an international network of women and bring their voices to the table. Moreover, the techniques they developed have been used by women at every major UN conference held since 1992.     

NGO Development in Croatia

SUMMARY

This paper reports on the phenomenon of de facto interdisciplinary community practice to promote the growth and development of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Croatia. While there has been dramatic expansion in the role of NGOs in Croatian society, no academic discipline has taken the initiative to provide systematic professional training in community practice theory, methods, and techniques. This study examines the role of intermediate NGO support centers, which partially meet this need by offering consultation, training, technical assistance, mentoring, and coaching. One support center, the Center for Civil Initiatives (CCI), is examined in detail, while additional data is drawn from three similar organizations. Professional staff, outside consultants, and volunteers from these centers usually have expertise in a wide variety of practice areas and academic disciplines. However, they do not operate from an interdisciplinary paradigm or practice model. Core knowledge theories and principles embracing an interdisciplinary approach for work with NGOs should be developed within the Croatian system of higher education. Social work has strong potential to develop the theoretical and methodological knowledge necessary to establish an interdisciplinary practice model for NGO development in Croatia.     

Implications of Welfare Reform on the Elderly

Abstract

Whereas many studies of welfare reform have focused on effects on children and families, little research has examined the implications of welfare reform for the elderly. This case study incorporates interviews with service providers for the aging, members of advocacy organizations, and two focus groups of older consumers conducted in the multi-ethnic urban community of San Francisco. Study findings suggest that welfare reform has had both direct and indirect effects on the elderly and their services in the study community. Direct effects derive primarily from changes in the welfare reform legislation that had the effect of undermining both immigrants' eligibility for and claiming of public assistance benefits. Indirect effects on older persons include increased child-care demands upon grandparents. The case study data bear on a significant policy change within the broader trend of devolution at a historical point when anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States was running high.     

Defending Diversity,Sustaining Consensus: NGOs at the Beijing Women's Conference and Beyond

SUMMARY

This article discusses access to and involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in September 1995. It also looks at the impact on consensus-building of the growing diversity of NGOs participating in these global UN events and at the effect on the international women's movement of the frustrations and difficulties faced in the follow up to Beijing as agreements have been reopened or rolled back. In this climate, women activists and feminist analysts are questioning the future viability of the United Nations as a political space for women's organizing, and under conditions of rapid globalization, are increasingly divided on strategies for implementation and activism.     

Aging,Disability, and Disabled Older People in India

Summary

India is witnessing a demographic revolution, leading to a considerable increase in the proportion of older people in the population. Similarly, life expectancy of both the mentally and physically disabled has improved considerably. About 5% of Indian older people have problems with physical mobility. Aging has become a gender issue in India not only because more women are surviving into old age; they are also vulnerable and disadvantaged in many ways. In most cases they are the only caregivers available for the old and disabled. Older Indians are considered a high-risk group for multiple morbidity. It is estimated that nearly four million Indians suffer from mental problems. India has around 12 million people designated as “handicapped.” However, little information is available about disabled people who grow older. The National Policy on Older Persons, which has been recently formulated, aims at providing an improved quality of life for millions of older Indians. However, the concerns of older disabled and of the disabled who grow old are still treated separately in both policy and practice.     

Creating shared value (CSV) and mutually beneficial relationships to address societal issues and develop corporate competitive advantage: A case study of Yuhan-Kimberly and an aging population

Through creating shared value (CSV) initiatives, companies have attempted to contribute to solving social problems that the public sector cannot address alone, such as migration, health, climate change, and job losses due to automation. Companies are also using CSV as business opportunities to develop their competitiveness. Only a few studies, however, have examined how organizations can develop and implement CSV programs, and the outcomes of those programs. We conducted a case study on how a multinational company, Yuhan-Kimberly, a joint venture of Kimberly-Clark and Yuhan, developed and implemented its CSV program, and created win-win, mutually beneficial impacts, in response to an increasingly aging society in Korea. South Korea is the world’s most rapidly aging society with the highest poverty and suicide rates among older adults. Yuhan-Kimberly’s CSV initiative includes fostering small-sized senior care businesses, creating jobs for older adults, changing the negative perception of older adults, and ultimately creating a market ecosystem for the older adult care industry. We used triangulation through company documents, including annual sustainability reports (N = 10), news reports (N = 623), company-conducted survey results (N = 80), and in-depth interviews (N = 14) with employees and members of other organizations and publics. The results reveal how the company developed and implemented a CSV program to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships and shared value for the company, older adults, other organizations, and society. The results indicate that CSV programs can be powerful relationship cultivation strategies to create mutual benefits both for society, by providing sustainable and feasible solutions, and for organizations, by enhancing their competitive advantages.     

Capacity in the NGO Sector: Results from a National Survey in Cambodia

Capacity has become a prominent theme in the literature on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the last few decades, due in part to the increasingly global role these organizations play in development. We analyze data obtained from a national sample of local and international NGOs operating in Cambodia, documenting capacity differences between these two groups as well as highlighting overall levels of capacity in the sector. The analysis covers a number of different organizational dimensions that have been associated with capacity, including structural characteristics and concrete management practices. Results suggest that international NGOs generally have greater capacity, but overall levels of capacity are relatively low for a variety of measures. We conclude with an exploratory cluster analysis that identifies four distinctive groups of NGOs based on capacity, providing additional insights into diversity within the sector. These findings will be useful for comparative NGO research and for capacity-building programs, in addition to helping establish an agenda for future research to monitor progress.     

Flirting with the enemy: Challenges faced by NGOs in development and empowerment

This article addresses the challenges faced by Mexican non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in attempting to perform their role as agents of development and empowerment among poor populations. Recently, NGOs have expanded and have gained a much greater capacity to respond to the problems of the poor populations. The issue at stake for many Mexican NGOs is that with their new-found capacities, they might reproduce a patron-client relationship with local communities. This article examines the redefiniton of NGOs goals and objectives and the changes in the relationship of NGOs with the state and the poor during the last three decades. It also discusses the effects of these changes on NGOs' methodology and approach in responding to the needs of disadvantaged communities.     

Private Lives and Public Programs

Abstract

Major late life events, reported in the Dubbo longitudinal study of older Australians, are used to examine the interaction of private lives with public programs. First, the data indicate strong supportive effects of publicly funded income, health, and aged care programs in reducing family burdens from major life changes. In particular, financial crises were rarely mentioned, directly or indirectly, as major threats. Next, the central role of informal social support in these events is demonstrated, first, as in previous studies, family support was responsive to risky events and to aging itself. Also, in new findings, one-third of surviving elderly respondents coped with the burdens of family crises as a substantial proportion of the “major” life changes that occurred over 13 years of the study. Within the security and support provided by the Australian welfare system, and with strong social networks, families with older persons in the Dubbo study manage multiple, major life changes. With rapid population aging, the development of more, and more easily accessible, services for a growing population of older people is a priority. The critical challenge will be to harmoniously grow public financing, private funding, and informal caregiving to deal with the growing burden arising from an aging society.     

Issues of elder care and elder abuse in the Indian context

With 7% of the population of India being elderly, two-thirds of whom live in villages and nearly a half of them in poor conditions, the care of the elderly is a difficult problem to be tackled. The dwindling of the joint family, the rise of dual-career families, a possible shift in filial piety values, the increasing life expectancy with greater chances of a prolonged old age characterized by poverty, degeneration, more empty-nest years, and dependency, have all added to the seriousness of the problem and made the elderly more susceptible than ever to abusive treatment. This paper examines these issues as well as the issue of elder abuse in light of available data and suggests some strategies to meet the problem. Also discussed are the problems, stresses, and strains of caregivers of the elderly. A greater role is envisaged for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) than the state in the care of the elderly, particularly in providing support services to family caregivers.     

Older Adults' Perceptions of Well-Being after Intergenerational Experiences with Youth

Abstract

Drawing upon Ryff's (1995) positive dimensions of well-being in older adulthood, thisstudy investigated older adults' perceptions of well-being following participation in anintergenerational program. Specifically, we examined the relationship between age, years of volunteer service, and sense of well-being among older adults (n= 46; 55 to 100 years of age) participating in intergenerational programs at 10 sites in Midwestern, agriculturally based communities. Using a mixedmethods design, results revealed that olderadults perceive a heightened sense of well-being from intergenerational interactions wit youth. Older adults reported successful aging included staying active, not worrying aboutone's problems, feeling young, and keeping up with the children and community. Adults aged 74-85 experienced significantly greater satisfaction and enjoyment than their older counterparts, particularly in anticipating working with youth and positive self-perception. No relationship emerged between years of involvement in the program and well-being. Implications for research and program development are discussed.     

Social Security in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

In terms of numbers of people, the global challenges facing social security systems are largely Asian. Because of rapid population aging in Asia, while it accounted for 28% of the world's population aged 60 and older in 1985, that percentage will more than double to 58% in 2050. Provident funds are a prominent feature of retirement income systems in the region-Asia and the Pacific contain the majority of the world's countries with provident funds. These programs typically provide lump-sum benefits, and thus, do not provide annuity protection against outliving one's resources. Because of the influence of Confucian philosophy with its emphasis on family responsibility for elders, countries in the region have been relatively slow in developing social security programs. China does not have a social security program for workers who do not work for the government or in government-owned enterprises.     

Towards a policy for aging in India

India has been engaged in developing the National Policy for elderly for the last two decades. The efforts to establish a policy began building on traditional values, a small number of pre-independence enactments. Lawgivers of India spoke of the rights of the elderly and the responsibility of the state towards them almost 2000 years ago. Additional factors such as culture, social norms, and influence of international organizations, particularly the Vienna Plan of Action, have been responsible for shaping the Policy. The Plan of Action agreed upon at the end of the Vienna meeting could not come into being due to several reasons such as the size of the country and its federal structure. This article takes an overview of the efforts made by the federal government and the NGOs to create a National Policy. The article describes the process by which the National Policy came into being and provides an overview and critique of the present Policy. The author makes a summary of the major areas of action suggested by the Policy, the strategies designed, and the implementation roles of different Ministries. The author describes the steps taken since 1999 and provides the concluding remarks.