By Rani Punnaserril HCM
Bangalore, Nov. 20, 2018: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Office for Labour and Workers India Federation (WIF) resolved to promote active and healthy ageing at the workplace in society and Church.
This was stressed during a national assembly of CBCI Office for Labour and Workers India Federation held at KROSS, Bangalore, November 16 – 19.
Human life is the gift of God and therefore ageing gracefully and productively should be considered as the right of every individual in society, said Father Jaison Vadassery, secretary, CBCI Office for Labour and director of WIF.
WIF is the official Organ of CBCI Office for Labour which has 79 facilitation centres all over India
It is reported that 1/8th of the world’s elderly population lives in India. Due to financial compulsion most of them will never be able retire in the usual sense of the term and will continue to work as long as physically possible.
Inevitably the ability to produce and earn will decline with age. The absence on savings and assets will result in sharp declining in living standards and consequential destitution of elderly work force.
Some 94% of workers in India are unorganised workers. The idea of ageing is not applicable for these sections of the population. Functionality is the criteria of ageing here. As long as the worker has the skills, ability and capacity to perform and produce they continue to work. Ageing workplace is a challenge in the unorganised sector. Stigmatization of older persons that they cannot perform more skilled labour lead to the social exclusion called ageism.
The present ideas about addressing ageing and related policies are coming from Anglo Saxen context and that too based on the criteria of economic value of the person. The value of an older person is much more than economic utility of the person and it must be understood beyond the “dependency ratio.”
They are custodians of knowledge, may provide social cohesion and a valuable resource for national development. Older workers should be considered as a valued worker. Labour law reform must account for the rights and needs of older workers. Experience of the senior workers need to be utilised for the better productivity of society, said Father Vadassery.
Value of the elderly work force is not properly recognised in our country. Ageism and the subsequent violations of the rights of older workers in our workplace need to be challenged through advocacy and labour law reforms, he said.
The idea of retirement should not be based on the chronological age and life expectancy of a country.
The innate skills, ability and capacity to perform should decide the retirement age of a person.
India soon will have the advantage of the demographic dividend of younger population and elder population provided we have right policies and investment. Increasing the employability of the elders also should be a priority of the government.
Labour laws in the country be made elder friendly. Trade unions should advocate for the rights of the elderly and for older person friendly workplace. Continuing the work of an older person may not hamper the employment prospect of young persons. Inter- generational employment opportunity must be monitored carefully.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) elderly persons rights must be taken into consideration. Proper budgetary allocation has to be there for the elders. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is meaningfully interpreted to encompass the human dignity of a person in its entirety. The idea of ageing should also be linked to ensure the human value of a person.
Ageism justifies the discrimination and exclusion of older persons. There are questions such as who decides the shifting an elderly to an old age home. Rights of the elderly need to be ensured through legislation. Minimum standard of care of elderly needs to be assured and ensured in our care homes and orphanages.
Church has to promote pension and social security of the elderly people particularly in the unorganised sector. The Madrid declaration of the elderly where India is also signatory has to be meaningfully implemented in India.
It is also time to revise the national policy for older persons. More awareness on the challenges of ageing workplace could be promoted through the activities of the CBCI Office for Labour and WIF.
Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore inaugurated the workshop. Bishop Alex Vadakkumthala, the chairman of CBCI Office for Labour presided over the meeting. Bishop Jose Chittooparambil delivered the keynote address. Dr. Stephen Alathara Deputy Secretary General, Conference of Catholic Bishops of India spoke the words of felicitations. Dr. Joe Thomas a renowned social policy analyst facilitated the workshop.
Joseph Jude, president WIF, Father Francis Guntipilly spoke on different topics related to ageing workplace on this occasion.
The general assembly of CBCI Labour and WIF elected the new office bearers for a term of two years.
The elected members of WIF are president – Joy Gothuruth, Kottapuram, Kerala; Vice President – R. Alvin Devdas, Pune; General Secretary, R. Jesuraja, Dhramapuri; Joint secretary – S. Antony, HyderabadTreasurer – Elroy Kiran, Uduppi.