Pakistan Association of Anthropology, Islamabad, Pakistan Special issue Sci.int.(Lahore),27(4),3711-3714,2015 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 3711 July-August STUDYING EFFECTS OF SPATIAL DISPARITIES ON ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG OLDER PERSONS OF RAWALPINDI Abid Ghafoor Chaudhry 1 , Aftab Ahmed 2 , Shaheer Ellahi Khan 3 , Haris Farooq 4 1 Department of Anthropology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, 2 Anthropologist, Pakistan Association of Anthropology, Islamabad, 3 Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Bahria University Islamabad, 4 IDS Department, Iqra University Islamabad. Corresponding Author’s Email: abidgc@uaar.edu.pk ABSTRACT: Pakistan is a third world developing country striving to work out challenges arising out of various manifold dimensions. The social and economic fabric of the society is almost decaying due to internal and external security threats, political instability, and severe economic clench. These multiverse problems have pushed the nation into a pit of undesirable issues and problems. The scope of social problems faced by the elderly population of Rawalpindi is the main theme of this paper. The study reveals that income level or employment status directly affects the area of residence among the targeted sample of study. Key Words: Older persons, Ageing, Ageing population, Employment, Income, Residence, Care givers, Society, Government INTRODUCTION The content of ageing policies varies significantly as ageing affects every facet of society. As was iterated on a UN website, ageing is ‘such a global demographic transformation [that it] has profound consequences for every aspect of individual, community, national and international life. Every facet of humanity will evolve: social, political, cultural, psychological and spiritual’ [1]. There are a number of differences between the challenges posed by ageing in developed versus less developed countries. Developed nations are mostly concerned about the sustainability of their social protection systems, whereas less developed countries have to deal simultaneously with the challenges of population ageing and those of development. Older people in developed countries are concentrated mostly in urban areas, whereas, in poorer nations, up to half of the population, including many older people, reside in rural areas. Older people in developing countries often reside in multigenerational homes, whereas this is less the case in developed countries [2]. Poorer older people are also at greater risk of social exclusion and exclusion from public services. This can also have an ethnic and cultural dimension. For example, in the UK, 17 per cent of pensioners overall live in poverty, yet this proportion is 42 per cent among the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities [3]. There is an acute data shortage regarding ageing indicators that further ads up to the torment of ageing in Pakistan. The academia and intelligentsia is supposedly busy in other market oriented work domain and research areas, the community and society is as usual unaware and unmoved to perform its social responsibilities. So is the case with the government that has numerous excuses of being indulged in other issues of peace and security, religious extremism via fighting a war again terrorism. When it comes to exploratory and descriptive studies on ageing, only a handful of researchers in Pakistan have worked on Ageing [4-24] MATERIALS AND METHODS The aim of the paper was firstly, to establish that the elderly person’s income is associated with their area of residence. Secondly, to see the nature of their employment related with the area of residence. Thirdly, to find out the interrelationship of their income or savings (after retirement or inability to work) with their area of residence. An in-depth interview schedule was prepared for the study purpose which was later on pre-tested for quality assurance. The data team comprised various social sciences students from various public universities of Pakistan, especially Department of Anthropology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. The sample of the study comprised 1000 respondents selected from clustered union councils of city. The data collection occurred in a face to face interaction with the OPs and their families with the intention to observe the living conditions of the respondents. The data collected was fed into an SPSS programmed tally sheet after data editing and due cleaning. RESULTS Figure. 1: Employment Status & Areas of Residence The figure uncovers an interesting dimension that speaks of the older persons in huge number i.e., 462 living in rural areas with no permanent source of employment. The respondents were fallen in the category of others that meant they were not self employed, business men, and government 112 28 88 8 462 42 5 53 0 202 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 Urban Rural