Today.Az » Society » Elderly people in Azerbaijan need to get higher pensions to have high quality and healthy nutrition
02 October 2010 [11:08] - Today.Az
Amount of pension in Azerbaijan should be 200-250 manat (up to $300) to ensure quality food and necessary medicines for the elderly people, Chairman of the Public Association for Promoting Economic Initiatives Azer Mehdiyev said.
"This category of the population needs to consume two thousand calories every day to maintain health,” Mehdiyev said. “This amount of pension would provide a high quality and healthy nutrition to elderly people."
However the size of the current pension does not allow the elderly to maintain an adequate diet. Therefore, material, social and medical problems of this category of people remain unsolved, Mehdiyev said.
"Less than 800 people live in homes for elderly and disabled people in Azerbaijan. The rest of the lonely elderly people are left to the mercy of the fate. Their lives are even more complicated by the lack of quality social care for them."
Azerbaijan need to announce the next year “The year of elderly Azerbaijanis” to draw attention to the problems of elderly population, expert on social issues Javid Imamoglu said.
"Old age is one of the unsightly problems age in Azerbaijan,” Imamoglu noted.
“It is difficult to age in an environment where there is no feasible assistance to the elderly."
According to the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan, 371,013 pensioners are classified as elderly people in the country as of late September.
On June 22, 2001, former President Heydar Aliyev signed the law “On social care for elder people”, under which Azerbaijan citizens as well as foreigners residing in the country without citizenship who have reached the age of 70 are considered elderly.
At present, the country has registered 284,533 elderly pensioners aged 70-80 years, 77,079 pensioners aged 80-90 years and 9,401 pensioners aged over 90 years. As of July 1, the number of pensioners in Azerbaijan was 1,291,139 people.
/Trend Life/
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