OLDER PEOPLE IN LATIN AMERICA

Latin America is one of the most unequal regions in the world in terms of wealth. It is scarred by severe poverty in what are now, mostly, classed as middle-income countries.

More than half Latin America’s older people live in poverty. Two-thirds have no regular income at all. In Bolivia, 59% of older people live on less than US$1 per day.[i] In Peru, 63% of older people live in poverty[ii].

Currently older people in both countries represent 7% of the population[iii] (though in some municipalities this figure reaches 21%[iv]). Older people are the fastest growing age group.

Older people continue to provide care for their grandchildren and younger family members. This places a burden on a significant proportion of rural older people already living in extreme poverty.

Cities such as Lima, the capital of Peru, which houses 8 million people, show the progress made in the last 10 years in terms of enterprise, infrastructure development, and the provision of basic services.

However, in the sandy hills that surround this enormous sprawling city, older people live in very poor conditions with no regular income (Peru has no state pension). The majority of these older people speak only basic Spanish, their first language being Quechua. Many are not literate. They are living out their old age in severe poverty and exclusion, far from their roots in the rural highlands of the Andes.

The situation of older people who have remained in their highland homes is often even worse, however. In Ayacucho and Huancavelica, where the effects of the war with the Shining Path of the 1980s are still striking, older people lack even the basics.

“Our main problem is finding enough food to eat and some of us don’t even have a roof over our head,” says the leader of an older people’s group in Huancavelica. “During the war the terrorists came and burnt our houses and our crops, and stole our cattle and our papers. To this day we have received no compensation for these crimes.” 

An older woman from Seccla, Huancavelica, says: “I have been a widow for many years. My husband and son were killed by the terrorists and I was left with my daughter and her children. She has gone to Lima to find work and left the children here with me. Now I don’t know where she is and I have to fend for myself and for them alone.”
 
In Bolivia, is significantly poorer and less developed than Peru, all older people over 65 do at least have the right to the Bonosol, a universal non-contributory pension worth US$220 a year.  The Bonosol provides the only income for many older people, who spend it mostly on food, clothes and small investments.

For more information contact Gustavo Trigo, Communications and Advocacy Officer, HelpAge International Latin America Regional Development Centre, gtrigo@helapgela.org, tel. +591 2 241 0583

[i] MECOVI Study.  HAI and National Institute of Statistics.  2004.

[ii] Plan Consulta sobre el Adulto Mayor: Peru. HAI. 2001. 

[iii]  Bolivian and Peruvian Census Data from 2001 and 2000 respectively.   National Institute of Statistics in Bolivia and National Institute of Statistics and Information in Peru.

[iv]   MECOVI Study.  HAI and National Institute of Statistics.  2004.