Better care for retirees needed, expert says

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

A retired employee from the state oil and gas company PT Pertamina was found dead in his bed on Wednesday by police after neighbors complained of a terrible odor coming from the house in Jatiasih, Bekasi.

Cipto Barus was 56. The police have initially put the cause of death as illness.

On Tuesday, another man, who lived alone in a rented house in East Bekasi, Binsar Hutagalung, 55, was found dead on his bed by a neighbor.

The two had similar circumstances. Both lived alone in their retirement without relatives, and neither apparently socialized much with neighbors.

Living alone in the city is often unavoidable, says sociologist Ida Ruwaida Noor from the University of Indonesia, but the community and the city administration should pay more attention to the needs of lonely retirees.

"The fact is, the population of elderly people is increasing since life expectancy in Indonesia has increased to well over 64 years, from 43 back in the 1960s," she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

At the same time, she added, the definition of family living in large cities was also changing, from the traditional extended family to a nuclear family. On top of that, social interaction in many urban housing complexes has become rarer.

"Lots of urban people don't know their neighbors," she added.

As a consequence, some elderly folk are unable rely on their children or neighbors anymore.

Ida acknowledged that the idea of sending elderly relatives to nursing homes was still not socially acceptable in this culture.

"But, we should be more realistic. In nursing homes, if they are managed well, the people can have what their children are unable to give: social activities with people of similar ages who understand them," she said.

Senior citizens from higher income brackets, are able to join or form social or sports clubs with groups of people similar to them who will look out for their interests.

"For example, there are some elderly clubs in Jakarta, in which the members meet regularly to do things together, such as playing cards, making crafts or reading books," Ida said.

Such clubs were important for them because they need useful activities to fill their post-productive period.

"Other countries provide certain jobs -- like tending to toll road posts -- exclusively for elderly citizens," she said, adding that such a policy was not feasible in Indonesia, where tens of millions of people at their productive age cannot find jobs.

"But we need to start doing things to give retirees a better life before it becomes a difficult problem to solve," she said.