Minister calls for comprehensive aged policy

Accra (Greater Accra), 1st July, 99 ?

Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, on Wednesday reiterated the need to plan and execute a comprehensive ageing policy to focus attention on issues affecting the aged.

The Ministry, she said, is working hard to develop such a policy for the aged, especially old women, who need special attention because ''most of them have no social security''.

Mrs Benyiwa-Doe, who was addressing a seminar for "older women" in Accra, said a policy focus is needed for old women, because of their limited economic power and their deprived state.

"Most aged women do not earn any pension and have little income", he said, adding that because of cultural beliefs in certain societies, some of them are treated as outcasts and neglected".

The seminar was under the theme "towards society for all ages".

In a welcoming address, Mrs Molly Anim-Addo, Chairperson, National Commission on Women and Development (NCWD), said older women have contributed and still make an input into the socio-economic development of the country.

"It is for this reason that the seminar is addressing their problems because they are more disadvantageous than old men.

She said "older women who were once seen as symbols of wisdom are now seen as a source of calamity, abandoned, fearsome and ridiculed".

Mrs Alberta Ollenu, President of Help-Age Ghana, who chaired the function, stressed the need to develop a programme for older women.

"Women never stop performing and could still be of help to the nation no matter their age", she added.

Topics being discussed include the economic and political contribution of the aged and the social and civic contribution of older persons to national development.

GRi?/