Social Exclusion among Elderly: Analysis on Ambedkar’s Humanistic Perspective

Abstract

This paper is on the social exclusion of elderly through an analysis of several of their exclusionarydimensions. It discusses the humanistic philosophy of Ambedkar. The study finds as a specificvulnerable group, the elderly population which is totally not free from any kind of deprivation. Theemphasis is on elder people‘s ‗engineered‘ dependency and marginalisation, which are attributed tofactors such as imposed retirement age, restricted social roles, inadequate retirement income,exclusion from labour market and from the social domains of everyday life, and from the capabilityto exercise economic choice. It discusses the gender dimension too, namely the exclusion of theelderly persons and finally the paper calls for the recognition of the problem of elderly people'sexclusion in the light of Ambedkar‘s humanism and for social work intervention to solve theseproblems through a community based inclusive care strategy