Aging population, care and citizenship: old dilemmas and new challenges

Brazil is a country that ages increasingly. In 2011, the elderly population marks 20,5 million, equivalent to 10,8% of the entire population. Projections suggest that, in 2020, the elderly Brazilian population will be 30,9 million, representing 14% of the whole population. This fast growing of the elderly population requires social services and demands appropriate political answers from both, the state and society. Among the many challenges to be faced is the one of the care services. The public policies for the elderly consider the family, the state and the society equally responsible for the care. In practical terms, this matter has been seen as a private and not a public issue, materializing in the figure of the woman, the job of looking after the elderly. The objective of this paper is to show how inadequate this model that elects women as the only responsible for the care is and also explores the possibilities of a new one that allows an aging process guided by civic values, in which the family, the state and other actors of society play their roles. Adapted from the source document.