The Measures that Were Taken by the Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations in Sri Lanka and Germany for Sustainable Development of Senior Citizens a Comparison

Abstract

This research focuses on similarities and differences between measures that taken by governmental and non- governmental organizations in Sri Lanka and Germany to uplift the quality of life of the elderly population. Elders can be defined as people over the age of 60 or 65 years. As a result of the decline of morality and fertility rate, the population of senior citizens in many countries in the world have increased. The Rapid growth of elderly population in the world is becoming one of the major challenges in several fronts as social, cultural and economic. Sri Lanka as a developing country and Germany as a developed country face many social and economic challenges during the last few decades according to the change of age structure. The demographic transition may a negative impact of Sri Lanka and Germany on economic growth. With the rapid growth of the elderly generation, the whole society has a responsibility to take care of them. Especially policymakers have a huge responsibility to make policies and take actions to uplift the quality of life of the senior citizens, which is timely very necessary. The objective of this research is to examine, what are the governmental and non- governmental organizations in both countries, which are conducting welfare programs and other programs to uplift the quality of life of Senior citizens and how may these programs affect the sustainable development of the elderly? This research is based upon interviews with governmental and non-governmental organizations, observations, interviews conducted with senior citizens, visiting the organization and studying statistical data and other written articles, which are related to the research area. Also, both verbal and written questionnaires were given to obtain the necessary data for the research. According to the finding of the research, it shows significant differences between the quality of life of senior citizens in Sri Lanka and Germany. Among many differences, it highlighted a main and an important difference, which is the social security system in Germany as it covers 99 percent of the whole population, which is in Sri Lanka only a small percentage. Timely it is becoming a necessity to create and implement a better social security system for the elderly population in the country for their sustainable development