Ministry celebrates Independence Day with elderly amid ageing population

The Ministry of Population and Family Development (Kemendukbangga)/BKKBN celebrated the 81st anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia’s independence together with elderly citizens as part of efforts to address the phenomenon of an ageing population.

“We are specially presenting the elderly to take part in celebrating the 81st independence anniversary, with the aim that those of advanced age can also feel the festivity, while not losing the momentum together with young people, especially Generation Z and Generation Alpha,” said Secretary of Kemendukbangga/Principal Secretary of BKKBN Budi Setiyono in Jakarta on Monday.

Kemendukbangga/BKKBN also warned about the condition of the elderly in Indonesia, whose proportion is currently growing larger, making it important to keep them productive in old age.

“The proportion of the elderly population will continue to grow, and we must inevitably anticipate it. We must not be late in anticipating it, otherwise we will experience the situations seen in countries that have already undergone population ageing,” he said.

The independence celebration at Kemendukbangga/BKKBN also served as a means of transferring knowledge from the elderly to the younger generation.

“Those in Generation Z or Alpha did not directly witness or know the events when independence was celebrated or proclaimed in the early days, so there is a transfer of knowledge and experience from the older generation to the younger generation,” he explained.

Therefore, Budi stressed that anticipating the ageing population is necessary to prevent the negative effects of the phenomenon.

Kemendukbangga/BKKBN has various programmes to increase the productivity of the elderly in facing the ageing population, including Sekolah Lansia, Lansia Entrepreneur, and Kartu Lansia to keep them productive even in their twilight years.

This is one of the government’s efforts to achieve the 2045 demographic bonus. Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), 16 provinces have already entered the ageing population category, led by the Special Region of Yogyakarta (17.83 percent), East Java (15.45 percent), and Bali (15.07 percent).