RI TO FACE RISING NUMBER OF ELDERS AMID DEMOGRAPHIC BONUS

By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Nov 2 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's elderly population is set to increase in number within the next 20 to 30 years, but experts believe that the country will have the benefit of a larger number of people in at productive ages.  Therefore, the government should initiate effective policies to take advantage of the demographic 'bonus' and to handle its senior citizens properly.          Until now, budget constraints have meant that the number of neglected senior citizens in Indonesia is rather high at eight percent of the country's population of 237.6 million people. "Indonesia now has 28 million senior citizens. Around 1.8 million of these or about eight percent of the population are neglected," director of the Social Affairs Ministry for Senior Citizens Services, Yulia Suhartini said here on Wednesday.