By Wietze Lindeboom and Valerie Leach (REPOA):
The elderly and children have been identified as especially vulnerable
groups in society. This concern has grown partly because of the impact
of HIV and AIDS, which has led to an increase in the numbers
oforphaned children, some of whom are cared for by their grandparents.
A REPOA policy brief titled ‘Poverty among the elderly and children in
Mainland Tanzania’conducted by WietzeLindeboom and Valerie Leach
examines the incidence of poverty among the elderly and children in
Tanzania and the extent to which they may be in need of
publicly-supported social protection, focusing on the situation of the
elderly and children who live in households with no working-age adult.
Significantly, the analysis found that households with onlythe elderly
and children are by far the poorest, in both urban and rural areas; 45
percent of these households are below the poverty line, compared with
33 percent of households with at least one adult of working age. Very
high percentages are female-headed (62 percent).
Of the estimated total population of 38.3 million people in 2007, 2.3
million Tanzanians were aged 60 years and older and the findings show
that 1.7 percent (330,000) of Tanzanian children reside in households
with only elderly adults. Thus, using those statistics, about one
million elderly people and children might be considered to be
especially at risk of poverty since they live with no adult of working
age.
Similarly, orphaned children (those who have lost one or both of their
parents) are commonly considered to be highly vulnerable. Overall,
10.8 percent or 2.1 million Tanzanian children under the age of 18
years have been orphaned. Most orphaned children are living in
households with working-age adults. Assuming that childrenliving with
only elderly adults are orphaned, this group represents 15.7 percent
of the 2.1 million orphaned children.
Findings also showed that households with only elderly people or with
children and elderly only are more likely than other households to
live in rural areas. Three-quarters of all households in Tanzania are
in rural areas. Eighty-six percent of all elderly only households and
83 percent of households with only children and elderly persons are
found in rural areas.
Looking at the household income and consumption, the authors state
that as may be expected, the main sources of income for these
households differ from those of households with at least one working-
age adult.
The findings show that the principal difference lies in the proportion
of these households that rely on cash remittances (money given to them
from other parties).In 2007, 18 percent of households with elderly and
children and 22percent of the households with elderly only depended on
cash remittances as their main source of income, compared with only 2
percent of other households. A much larger percentage of urban than
rural households received remittances, 41 percent of urban households
with elderly and children, and 36 percent of urban households with
elderly only depend on cash remittances as their main source of
household income, compared with 13 percent and 19 percent respectively
among these types of households in rural areas.
Analysingpoverty among elderly people and children, authors found that
households with elderly and children only are by far the poorest, in
both urban and rural areas. Forty-five percent of these households are
poor, of which 62% are headed by females. Of these female-headed
households with only the elderly and children, 49% are poor. This
means that almost half of the households who are female-headed with
only elderly and children are poor – compared with one-third of
households on average.
Among households with elderly and children, poor households are larger
(3.4 persons) than non-poor households (2.9 persons). The difference
is largely because of the larger number of children in these
households. There is little difference in household size among
households with only the elderly, poor or non-poor male-headed and
female-headed households.
Because of the special concern about elderly women, particularly
grandmothers caring for orphaned children, information about poverty
among female and male-headed households was analysed. About
one-quarter of households with prime working-age adults are reported
to be female-headed, 77 percent male-headed. However, among households
with elderly and children only, a much larger percentage are
female-headed – 62 percent. These are likely to be the households in
which grandmothers are caring for their grandchildren, and, as shown
above, they are more likely to be poor.
Very high percentages of households with elderly and children only are
female-headed in Arusha (100 percent), Pwani (91.5 percent), Singida
(90.4 percent) and Dar es Salaam (87.9 percent). Overall, of the
people who live in households with prime working age adults, about
one-third in both female-headed and male-headed households are poor.
In urban areas, those in female-headed households are more likely to
be poor (25 percent) than those in male-headed households (20
percent).
However, in urbanhouseholds with only elderly people, fewer
female-headed households (8 percent) are poor than male-headed
households (15 percent). The pattern is reversed for elderly-only
households in rural areas, where those in female-headed households (21
percent) are more likely to be poor than in male-headed households (17
percent).
This briefpoints out that elderly people living alone or in households
with other elderly persons are much less likely to be poor than other
Tanzanians. That these older Tanzanians are living alone might suggest
that they are more able to sustain themselves, otherwise they would
depend on and live with their adult children. Of all elderly people,
70 percent live in households with working-age adults and 18 percent
in households with elderly only.
Eleven percent of the elderly live in households with the elderly and
children only, with no prime working-age adult. Among these,
households with a greater number of children are more likely to be
poor. A much larger percentage of households with elderly and children
only are female-headed than the Mainland average.
The authors indicate that based on the evidence, the elderly persons
and children in these households -an estimated 330,000 children and
251,000 elderly people -merit special consideration in national
programmes of social protection and agricultural development.