The Deputy Protector of Citizens for Gender Equality, Jelena Stojanović, emphasized today that elderly women in the countryside are in a disadvantageous position because they are mostly socially excluded and invisible, they are in poor financial condition and have difficulty accessing social and health care services.
"The elderly women in the countryside belong to the part of the population that is insufficiently visible and insufficiently vocal about their disadvantageous position. They do not enjoy the full range of rights in the area of social and health care, primarily due to insufficiently developed special services and support services at the local level", said Stojanović at the conference "From childhood to the right to a dignified old age – human rights and institutions".
At a meeting organized in Novi Sad by the Provincial Protector of Citizens and the Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research from Belgrade, Stojanović stated that elderly women in the countryside are in a poor financial situation because they most often participate in unpaid domestic work and work on the agricultural estate.
The Protector of Citizens constantly points to the need to raise awareness about the rights of the elderly, especially elderly women in the countryside. In this direction, in the project we are implementing with the association "Amity – Strength of Friendship" with the support of the Council of Europe, we mapped the relevant partners in the area of protection of rights of elderly women in the countryside, especially at the local level, Stojanović said.
Based on the mapping, we created a Register of civil society organizations dealing with the protection and promotion of the economic and social rights of elderly women in the countryside, as well as a mechanism for mapping the prevalence and monitoring the quality of the help at home service as a social protection service and the health care service, while respecting the socio-demographic characteristics of women beneficiaries, Stojanović added.
According to the Deputy Protector of Citizens, the goal of this project is to protect the rights of elderly women in the countryside through reporting on the implementation of the Revised European Social Charter as an instrument that proclaims and encourages the full protection and enjoyment of the rights of the elderly, especially through Article 23 – The right of the elderly to social protection.