Ministry of Social Affairs Invites Society to Welcome the Phenomenon of Population Aging

JAKARTA (October 8th, 2019) - Director General of social rehabilitation Edi Suharto emphasized the need for synergy between the elements of development, especially the government, society and all elements that deal with the elderly to realize a healthy, prosperous and dignified Indonesian elderly.

"Indonesia is starting to enter the Aging Population period where an increase in life expectancy is followed by an increase in the number of elderly people. This phenomenon is the impact of the aging population, which is the greater proportion of older people on a country's population” said Director General of Social Rehabilitation Edi Suharto in his remarks written read by the Director of Social Rehabilitation for Elderly Andi Hanindito during the Indonesian Elderly Coordination and Synchronization meeting ", in Jakarta, Tuesday (08/10/2019).

Andi Hanindito said that the data from the National Social and Economic Survey (Susenas) in 2018 contained 24.49 million elderly population in Indonesia at present or 9.03% of the total population. This shows that Indonesia can be said to have an old structure if it has an elderly population above seven percent.

"From the total 24 million people, approximately 2 million of them are categorized as having no potential because they are in a bedridden condition or cannot be active anymore as usual, and most of them are not in a stable economy condition," Andi said.

For this reason, it is expected that social and religious organizations, higher education, district / city level institutions, will be more progressive in working and synergizing to welcome the Aging Population phenomenon. One of the social pillars that is very active in the field in serving elderly people is the Social Welfare Institution (LKS) as the spearhead of determining the success of elderly social welfare services.

As many as 200 participants attended the meeting who were representatives of Academics and Practitioners in the fields of Elderly, Observer, Politicians, Executive Board of the Indonesian Elderly Communication Forum, Head of Jakarta Elderly LKS, Humanitarian activists focused on the elderly, and Social Organizations.

In this activity, there is also the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs and the Indonesian National Council for Social Welfare (DNIKS), Tantyo Adji Sudharmono on Cooperation in the field of productive economic business for the elderly. Then proceed with an interactive discussion between Elderly Academics and Practitioners and Participants.