Populations in South Asia, although less aged than other populations of Asia and the West, are aging rapidly. This paper presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the elderly in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and reviews evidence on whether or not the family situation and status of the elderly have changed in recent decades. There is not strong evidence that the status of the elderly has declined nor that it was uniformly high in the past, but there is indication that economic power has long been an important determinant of status. The paper concludes with a discussion of how future elderly may be different from today's, the limits on developing programs for the elderly in countries at relatively low levels of economic development, and the need for additional research on the elderly of South Asia.

The status of South Asia's growing elderly population.

Elderly mental health in the developing world

Gender, Aging and Widowhood

With populations aging rapidly in many developing nations, issues of economic dependency among the elderly are of increasing importance. Using data from a 1986 survey of the elderly on Java, Indonesia, I describe gender differences in economic well-being and identify characteristics associated with economic disadvantage. At both the individual and the household level, older women have fewer resources than older men. Even within categories of support (work income and remittances), women have lower levels of well-being. Gender differences in household-level economic well-being are due primarily to differences in household structure and in levels of skills. Gender differences in individual receipts (from all sources) are more complicated, but can be understood more clearly with reference to gender differences in skills levels (literacy, language, job skills), current work status and authority, and domestic authority.

Gender Differences in Economic Well-Being Among the Elderly of Java*

This study examines the impact of relationship to head of household and the presence of co-resident spouses and sons on elderly mortality in rural Bangladesh with a particular focus on age and gender differences.... Relationship to head of household and the presence of spouses and sons have powerful impacts on reducing mortality for elderly men and women in rural Bangladesh with the effects varying significantly by gender and age. Furthermore individual rather than joint access to material resources is an important determinant of elderly mortality. (EXCERPT)

Age and gender variation in the impact of household structure on elderly mortality.

The story of aging in Bangladesh may be quite different, depending on whether one is a woman or a man. There are rewards for the woman if she manages to become the head of the domestic realm of an extended family, but even this is brief, as she loses that role when her husband dies. The old man, however, does not relinquish his authority nor hand over the economic reins until his own death. Male and female roles cannot be said to converge in old age, let alone cross over, as described for a number of societies. Only in their roles as grandparents do males and females share similar behaviors.

Never the twain shall meet: Aging men and women in Bangladesh

Islamic Institutions : Perception and Practice in a Village in Bangladesh:

The Village Culture in Transition: A Study of East Pakistan Rural Society . By S. M. Hafeez Zaidi. Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1970. ix, 159 pp. Tables, Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography, $6.50

Jean Ellickson

Papers

Never the twain shall meet: Aging men and women in Bangladesh

Islamic Institutions : Perception and Practice in a Village in Bangladesh:

The Village Culture in Transition: A Study of East Pakistan Rural Society . By S. M. Hafeez Zaidi. Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1970. ix, 159 pp. Tables, Appendix, Glossary, Bibliography, $6.50