Social Participation and its Determinants among the Urban Elderly

Abstract

Social Participation and its Determinants among the Urban Elderly: newline A Study in Mumbai newline Abstract newline Globally, major demographic shifts are happening in the population with greater number of people newline surviving to older ages. This phenomenon of population ageing has become one of the major emerging newline demographic concern of the 21 st century. Population ageing is no more a concern only for developed newline countries. Developing countries are currently ageing faster than developed countries. Population ageing has newline implications on various aspects of caregiving, health services and social security measures. Growth in the newline elderly population indicates the need for higher quantity and quality of geriatric services, financial security newline and other interventions to improve the quality of life of the elderly. Increasing life expectancy and higher newline expectations of a good quality of life in old age highlight the importance of an active lifestyle in later life. newline It raises a need to reassess the understanding of ageing in the present context. In this light, studies and newline Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (2002) advocates the recognition of participation and newline contribution of elderly in social, cultural, economic and political participation. Most of the contemporary newline discourses on ageing include the perspective of participation and have been addressed as a way to deal with newline challenges brought by demographic transitions. Social participation is a key concept of social policy to newline ensure active and successful ageing. Review of previous studies highlighted the significance of social newline participation of elderly for enhancing their self-esteem and for their overall well-being. Social participation newline refers to an act of participating in the life of the group and society; paid or unpaid work for a family business newline or farm, volunteer work (participating in any productive activities), educative programmes and other group newline participation (regularly). newline The concept of social participation is embedded in the Active Ageing framework by World Health newline Organization. According to the WHO, Active Ageing is a process of optimizing the opportunities for health, newline participation and security in order to enhance the quality of life as people age. Socio-economic, health newline disparities along with other environmental factors greatly influence the possibilities and opportunities for newline social participation of the older population. Understanding the factors promoting such disparities would be newline the first step in order to promote social participation of the elderly in the country. newline The aim of the present study was to explore the patterns of social participation of the elderly and newline to know the variations in social participation and its determinants among the urban elderly, according to newline gender and locality. The study identified the determinants of social participation of elderly. Using a cross- newline sectional sample survey approach, the present study was carried out in the Anushakti Nagar constituency newline of Mumbai suburban district, Maharashtra. Bases on stratified random sampling, 440 elderly (60+) years newline ivwere selected, with an equal proportion of elderly residing in the slum and non-slum areas, and equal newline number of male and female elderly within each of slum and non-slum population. newline From the results, it is observed that, in the given socio-economic and environmental contexts, newline factors age, marital status, education attainment, the contribution to the household expenditure, type of newline living arrangement, self-perceived general health, physical activity, sense of safety and security in the newline community and social support determine the propensity of social participation among the elderly from newline different locality and gender groups. It was noticed that various patterns of social participation in the form newline of paid labour, leisure activities, informal care and social organisations exist among the elderly. The study newline also highlighted the interplay of various factors affecting the social participation of the elderly. This newline knowledge in the domain of Social participation will not only contribute to meet the social, economic, newline health and emotional needs of the elderly but also highlight the potential contribution of the elderly in newline different domains. The differentials and determinants of social participation discussed in the study provide newline a holistic understanding of how the elderly are engaged in society. The thesis concluded with a set of newline recommendations in the areas of methodology, policy and programmatic aspects for building further newline knowledge base in the field of social gerontology and to initiate effective social work interventions for the newline promotion of social participation of elderly. newline