Income Security in Old Age

Special Articles / T.K. Nair / Older People in Rural Tamilnadu

Retirement and reduced income are inevitable features as people grow old. Among the poor, the aged are one of the most vulnerable sections. Destitution and dependence are the lot of many older persons. For analysis, the older people are divided into three income units: married couple; widowers, separated, divorced and single men; and widows and other women. Thus the 1598 sampled older men and women were distributed among the three income units as follows: 41 per cent couples, 15 per cent unmarried men and 44 per cent unmarried women. The reference period to assess the economic situation of the aged was 1974.

Income of the Aged
A third of the elderly couples, men and women are in destitution with no income of their own. More than a half of the widows and other women are without any income. The couples are the fewest among those who have no income; one in eight couples is in destitution. The poorest, thus, are the widows. For the couples, as against the widowed or separated men and women, there is the likelihood of at least one of the partners earning or having some income.  

Arbitrarily, we have taken Rs.50 a month for an individual and Rs.100 for a couple as the minimum amount required for subsistence. If an older person does not have at least this amount, he or she will have to depend on others or will have to undergo hardships including starvation. Six in seven women and two in three couples and men are below the subsistence level. The elderly who have monthly income exceeding Rs.150 are three in hundred women and one in eleven men. The couples with comparable income are more or less similar in proportion to that of men. The increase in income need not bring about better levels of living for all. The vast majority of the elderly have many family responsibilities. They are either the sole or the chief bread winners of the family, or active earning members. The aged with unmarried children have the worry of getting the girls married and making the sons stand on their own.

Employment is the source of income of more than two-thirds of the elderly income units: three in four couples, two in three men and three in five women. For the couples, there are two to earn in many instances. In nearly a half of the couple households, the wife is either the supplementary or sole earner. More than a fifth have some property income which excludes the income from the land which people cultivate as self-employment. This also includes passive income like rent from land and house. Nearly a third of the men and a quarter of the women have some income from property. Fewer married couples have property income compared with the men and women. One in ten of the elderly income units gets money regularly from children outside the household. More women than men and couples get money from the children who are living away from them. Only one in hundred is a pensioner from former employment. Only men held pensionable jobs. In contrast, all the recipients of the old age pension from the government are widows and other women. Recipients of the social assistance benefit are only one in twenty five women. A few, mostly widows and other women, are helped regularly with money by their relatives.
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Eighty eight per cent of the 1,060 income units who live with others have the earnings of other members of the household. Thus there are a substantial minority of 12 per cent who are the only earners of their households with the other members depending on the elderly man, woman or couple. They are nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of the elderly couples. The fewest are the widows and other women.

Household Income
Having discussed the income and sources of income of the older people, it is pertinent to study the economic condition of the households of the elderly, and the contribution of the elderly to the household income.

For analysis, the households are divided into very poor, poor, low income and middle income households based on the per capita monthly income groups less than 30, 30-49, 50-74, and 75 and above.

On the whole, three in five households are very poor: 57 per cent couples, 58 per cent men and 66 per cent women.  Another more than a fifth are poor households. In all, 84 per cent of the households are in varying levels of poverty.  More widowed and other women are in very poor and poor households. They are followed by couples. Widowers and other men are fewer among the three low income groups. Only one in fifteen households is in the middle or high income class. Nearly three-fourths of the older people without any income of their own are in very poor households : eight in ten couples, seven in ten men and more than seven in ten women. On the whole, ninety per cent of the elderly income units are in very poor and poor households, and widows and other women exceed the other two income units. Thus, most of the poorest old people live in very poor and poor households. Their financial strain must be severe. Only one in twenty elderly income units without any means belongs to a middle income household.

Four in five of the older persons in the lowest income group (below Rs.50) belong to very poor households. Further, almost all the older men, women and couples with this income live in households which are either very poor or poor. So also are the couples whose income falls below Rs.100 a month.

Increase in personal income is not associated with improvement in the economic condition of the household in many cases. This is because, being heads or active earners of families, the elderly have to support the other members of the family who partly or totally may be dependent on them. The number of members in the households, the number of additional earners, and the amount they earn are accepted factors that would influence the economic level of the households. Nearly two-thirds of the couples with income between Rs.100 and 150, and nearly two-fifths with income more than Rs.150 belong to very poor and poor households. Similarly, four in seven of the widowers and other men, and three-fifths of the widows and other women earning between Rs.50 and 100, and two-fifths of the men and a half of the women earning more than Rs.100 live in households which are poor or very poor. How far is the popular notion that destitution and dependence are the lot of most of the old true? The elderly are divided into five groups in terms of the contribution they make to the household income: nil, minimal (less than 25 per cent), substantial (25-49 per cent), major (50-99 per cent) and total. Two in five of the elderly (other than those who live alone or who live with spouse only) are totally dependent on other members of the household. But on the other extreme there is almost an equal proportion who are the sole or major supporters of all the members of the household. The contribution of one in ten is minimal, but that of one in nine is substantial. Among the three income units, women who take full care of the entire household are the fewest (13 per cent) and the couples are the largest. More than two-fifths (43 per cent) of the couples and one-fourth of the men have their households completely dependent on them. On the whole, nearly two-thirds of the elderly couples (65 per cent) and two-fifths of the men are the principal or only contributors to the household income.

Thus we have an altogether different picture emerging.  The elderly dependants are quite large in number. The widows and other women are most likely to be totally or partially dependants and the couples the least likely to be fully dependants. The vast majority of the households are very poor or poor and the older members in the families must be in hardship because of other important family priorities. On the other hand, the large majority of the older persons are not dependent recipients; they are active providers.

The living arrangement of the elderly and the extent of their contribution to the household income yield interesting information. In a sixth of the joint households with married sons the elderly take total care of the entire household. They are three in ten couples and one in five men. These may be the joint households with the father retaining control over the household resources. Further, more than two-fifths of the elderly couples and three-tenths of the men are the chief or only earners of the households with married sons.  Households where the women are the only or main earners are significant in proportion as the dependence of married sons on their mothers is contrary to expectation. Widowed daughters depending on parents is natural and therefore we find the large majority of the elderly parents (71 per cent) and nearly a half of the widowed fathers looking after the families of daughters with whom they live; so also a sizeable proportion (one-fifth) of the widowed mothers. At the same time, unlike widowed fathers and parents, the vast majority of the widowed mothers living with married daughters are totally dependent on them.

Other relatives in the households of the elderly include daughter-in-law and son-in-law who are widowed, grandchild, brother, sister and other relations. In nearly a half of these households, the elderly take complete care of all the members or they are the prime contributors to the household coffer. Most of the elderly couples are the caretakers of these households. So are two-fifths of the widowers and a third of the widows. A large majority of the unmarried children who live with their elderly parents (exceeding three-fourths) are total or partial dependants on them. Though not the majority, many unmarried  children who live with their widowed mothers (one-third) too depend fully or partly on them. In old age, it is praiseworthy that widows are carrying on their shoulders the complete or major burden of providing for their children, grandchildren, siblings and other relatives. They constitute a sizeable proportion (one-sixth) of the widows living with children, other relatives and others. This is all the more significant because of the popular image of the elderly women as dependent persons.

What is the living arrangement of the elderly without any income of their own. Nearly two-thirds are living with their married children, mostly sons. They are one in two couples, three in five widowed fathers and two in three widowed mothers. A sixth live alone or live with spouse only. Four old widows, two widowers and one elderly couple live by begging.

Housing
Most of the older people in the villages live in dwellings of poor quality; seven in ten income units live in one room dwellings. In 55 per cent of the dwellings, cooking is also done in the one room which houses the family. The dwellings that are electrified are only 15 per cent. They belong to 17 per cent married couples, 19 per cent men and 12 per cent women. Three of every ten one-room households have five or more members. Similarly, more than a half (51 per cent) of the two-roomed dwellings have members exceeding four. The dwellings accommodate all the members of the household irrespective of sex and age.  Where a small verandah is found, the old, particularly men, sleep at night. During summer, people sleep outside.  Accommodation becomes acute during rains.
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That the economic condition of most of the aged is far from satisfactory has already been established. Reduction in income with advancing age has also been seen from the data. But what do the elderly feel about the deterioration in their financial position? To ascertain this, they are asked whether they are in a better or worse condition now than they were at 55. An overwhelming majority of the older men and women say that their financial state of affairs is worse now.