Elderly population to reach 1.6 crore by 2025

Dr Peter Kim Streatfield, head of the population programme of the Centre for Health and Population Research, also said here yesterday the number of old people of 60 plus age would grow more than twice the present time due to better primary health care, increased life expectancy and better management of communicable diseases.

He said the aging population would put an extra pressure on treatment for non-communicable diseases such as respiratory problems, diabetis and cancer, three major health problems for Bangladesh's elderly people.

"So, it is urgent to upgrade public hospitals, train doctors, and equip public and private facilities with modern equipment to provide secondary and tertiary treatment for the old people," Kim told journalists at a press conference at the International Centre on Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) here.

Kim said the population size of the country would be 18.2 crore by the next year and the elderly people would constitute 8.8 per cent of the total population. The old people now constitute 5 per cent of the total population.

"The worrying phenomena is that the number of elderly caring people would reduce to 7.5 persons in 2025, 3.2 persons in 2050 and 2 in 2075 from 11.4 persons now," Kim Said. He said health issue would lead to a big social problem both for the old and adults, who prefer individualism at their productive age.