A ‘super-aged society’ faces shortage of caregivers

South Korea has unearned the unenviable tag of a ‘super-aged society’ as 21 per cent of its 51 million population is over 65. A large number of them are single. This raises the challenge of finding caregivers for them. The South Korea government is responding to it by introducing university courses of caring for the aged to create a qualified workforce of caregivers. According to estimates, there will be a shortfall of 116,000 elderly caregivers by 2028. South Korea would need 990,000 elderly caregivers by 2043. These are staggering figures.

It is now reckoned that there are enough elderly caregivers in the country, and the shortage is due to the fact that the wages are not attractive, and it does not hold out the prospect of a rewarding career with promotions and increased wages. The wages for the caregivers are now pegged at the mandatory minimum wage. And the work itself is arduous because it involves taking the elederly person to the toilet, giving a bath, taking them out, apart from giving them food. It also involves night shifts.

Despite being qualified caregivers, many Koreans are not picking up assignments to meet the demand. Lee Kyu-yong, researcher at the Korea Labour Institute, said, “There are great many Koreans who hold caregiver qualifications. They are not going into the field because the wages and the working conditions are poor.”

The other option that is being tried out is that of opening up immigration, allowing foreign students to take university courses in caregiving, and stay back to join the workforce. Experts argue that the same challenges of low wages and tough working conditions may not draw the immigrants. Professor Kim Ok-nyu of Sookmyung Womne’s University says, “The care sector is already one of the occupations Koreans avoid. If Koreans don’t want to do the work, migrants won’t necessarily do it either.”

There are exceptions like Mongolian Uyanga, who qualified as a veterinary surgeon and worked at a food factory to test chemical treatments before she migrated to South Korea. Uyanga says, “I am confident that I can provide care and support services to elderly people better than anyone. I had a strong desire to work in social welfare, especially in elderly care.”

The problem of an ageing population is now a common challenge facing many advanced economies like Japan and most of Europe. There are no easy answers. Encouraging immigrants will partially help in countering the falling birthrates, but it is not an answer to the growing demand for caregivers. Governments and international organisations will have to evolve policies and strategies to rising number of the elderly.

One of the solutions that has been mooted in countries like France is to raise the retirement age and keep the older people in the workforce. In the 1990s, France wanted to lower the retirement age to provide employment for more people, along with shortened work hours. These are social developments that need a studied response. There are many poorer and developing countries which have a majority of younger population, and the median age is between 21 and 29. But birthrates are going to fall and the demographic advantage will pass. So, the challenge of population decline with its attendant problems will have to be faced across the globe, and across levels of economic development.

What South Korea is facing today will be the problem for other countries in a few decades, or even less. There is a pressing need for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), also known as the United Nations Population Fund, to organise a global summit to discuss and prepare for the issue of population decline in the long term. When the UNFPA was established in 1967, the world was facing the challenge of population explosion. Now the issue has to be flipped and addressed as one of declining population.