Abuse of elderly, housing raiding on rise in Kyrgyzstan

Violence against the elderly both by the family and the external environment, housing raiding, fraud became more frequent in Kyrgyzstan. The head of the Resource Center for Elderly Svetlana Bashtovenko told today in Parliament.

According to her, there is the law on the elderly in the Kyrgyz Republic since 2010. "But it is absolutely declarative. There are many problematic issues in the pension reform. Despite indexing of pensions, rise in prices continues, that negatively affects the purchasing power of pensioners," Svetlana Bashtovenko complained.

"The population of the world is rapidly aging. According to UN forecasts, the number of persons older than 60 years will reach 1.2 billion people in 25 years. Reduction in the share of the working age population gives rise to social problems. As for Kyrgyzstan, the country is a home for 448,600 senior citizens, or 7.5 percent of the total population today. This ratio is steadily growing," she informed. 

According to her, the average size of pension is 5,000 soms. "Those who have no right to a pension protection receive monthly allowance of 1,000 soms. Pension and allowance is the only source of income for the majority of the elderly," Svetlana Bashtovenko noted.