FEATURE: Aging society arriving too soon in Thailand

Asian Economic News, Oct 2, 2000

BANGKOK, Sept. 28 Kyodo

With one of the lowest population growth rates in Asia, Thailand is facing the prospect of a society aging too rapidly for its economy and workforce to support -- and of elderly people begging on the streets.

Already about 35% of the elderly population cannot earn enough money to support themselves, and 1% have no income at all. Although the government offers an annual welfare payment of 3,600 baht for the elderly poor, at 10 baht ($0.25) a day this is not enough for even two plates of steamed rice -- and only 400,000 people who have no earnings actually get this handout from the state.

Thailand's fertility rate has plummeted from 6.36 children per woman in the 1960s to 2.0 at present, and will fall to 1.7 over the next 25 years, according to a U.S. census agency.

The census, conducted in April 2000 by the National Statistical Office, showed that the annual growth rate of Thailand's population had declined to 1.05% from 1.96% in the previous survey 10 years ago.

Even Singapore, also worried about the low growth rate of its 4 million population, had a higher annual rate of 2.8% for the 1990-2000 period.

Thailand's over-60 population has increased sharply from 5.1 million in 1997 to 5.8 million this year, about 8.4% of the total 60.6 million population, according to the Thai National Economic and Social Development Board.

A World Bank report points out that in Belgium and France it took over a century for the share of the population aged over 60 to double from 9% to 18% but in Thailand that transition will occur within the next 20 years.

As with other countries facing a rapidly aging population, Thailand will find itself with fewer workers to propel the economy and support the elderly. There are currently 6.3 workers supporting every person over 60 in Thailand, but this ratio will fall to only 3.3 by 2020, according to the report.

The rapid aging of the population has also raised fears about the country's ability to care for its elderly. Thailand has only 20 welfare centers nationwide, with a combined capacity of only 3,000.

The Labor Ministry's public welfare department, however, which oversees the centers, has no plans to increase capacity.

''Families, communities and society should take care of the elderly population, rather than state services,'' said Ubon Limsakul, a department official, adding elderly people feel more comfortable living with their families than as strangers in state welfare centers.

But Thai society has been transformed from one of extended families to one of nuclear families, as children now separate from their parents after getting married or prefer to live alone.

The department is hoping to encourage traditional institutions such as temples, mosques and churches to play a greater role in supporting the elderly population. But this could prove difficult in an age when the sense of communal cooperation has been worn down, especially in urban industrial societies, according to one academic.

''Looking at our society today, there are so many selfish individualists who do not care about others,'' said Thirayut Boonme, a sociologist at Thammasat University. ''They believe in the free market and liberalism, and are ready to spend their money for their own future.''

Banlu Siripanich, chairman of the Elders Council, a national association of elderly persons, suggested the state should offer tax incentives for children who support their aging parents and establish laws to protect the rights of the elderly.

To look after one's aged parents is in accord with traditional Thai values, but more younger parents today do not seem to expect their own children to stick with this practice.

Not many families have benefited from Thailand's economic and social transformation as income inequalities have grown and the gap widened between the modern economic sector in urban areas and the agricultural sector in rural areas, where 80% of aging people live.

Unless the government begins to tackle the problem now, there may one day be no alternative -- for those elderly who have neither state nor social welfare programs to support them -- to begging for survival on the streets.