Gender vector of social policy of Uzbekistan
Social support for needy women and ensuring gender equality are the main directions of the policy of Uzbekistan’s leadership in recent years
Modern Uzbekistan has taken a course towards building a social state. This means that the state aims to effectively build up the system of protection and ensuring the rights and interests, needs of the population, to support in every possible way the well-being of citizens, various strata, categories of people, women and men, young and old people. The implementation of a fair social policy is aimed at developing human capital and ensuring a decent life for the population.
The social policy of Uzbekistan is aimed at smoothing out social inequality in society, generated by the conditions for the development of market relations, creating decent living conditions through the redistribution of benefits, ensuring employment of the population, and supporting socially unprotected segments of the population.
The state pays great attention to enhancing the role of women in the socio-economic and political life of the country; women make up exactly half (50%) of the country’s 35 million population. Protection of the rights and legitimate interests of women, increasing their economic, social and political activity, health care, training in professions, ensuring the employment of women, their wide involvement in entrepreneurship, social support for needy women and ensuring gender equality are the main directions of the policy of the country’s leadership in recent years. This policy was reflected in the National Program for Increasing the Activity of Women in All Spheres of the Economic, Political and Social Life of the Country for 2022-2026, adopted in 2022 .
Its goal is to further strengthen the system of social protection of women, improve their health, create the necessary conditions for education, form and improve the legal framework for protecting the rights and interests of women, increase the socio-economic and political activity of women, and strengthen their role in society.
In the updated Constitution of Uzbekistan, Art. 58 is prescribed, the state will ensure the equality of men and women in all spheres of public and state life of the country. In general, more than 40 normative acts reflected the issues of social policy towards women. At the same time, the Gender Strategy of Uzbekistan until 2030 is being implemented. At the same time, since 2022, the secretariat for family and women’s issues has been functioning under the government, a commission and a committee on achieving gender equality have been operating in the Senate, and the Committee on Family and Women’s Issues under the Ministry for Poverty Reduction and Employment has resumed its work.
At present, the requirements for gender expertise and gender audit for all organizations and institutions have been defined, the position of an authorized responsible person responsible for the implementation of gender policy in any institutions and organizations of the country has been introduced.
According to the Decree of the President PC-300, in 2022 a system of an integrated approach to the provision of social services to families in need of support was created.
More than 4.5 thousand social specialists from various ministries, departments, as well as women activists in mahallas were appointed responsible for the implementation of social programs within the framework of the developed “Unified Register of Social Protection” of the country’s population.
Women are provided with all possible targeted support in matters of employment and improvement of working conditions.
In 2022, the issue of employment of 878 thousand women throughout the republic was resolved, over the past period of this year – more than 230 thousand women. Work is underway to broadly attract women, especially young girls in rural areas, to family and private entrepreneurship and handicrafts.
In 2018, at the initiative of the President, the Family and Women’s Support Fund was established jointly with the People’s Bank. More than 100.0 billion were allocated . soums of soft loans for women who want to start a business.
According to women’s entrepreneurship programs over the past year and a half, 49,708 women have been allocated 206 billion . soums of subsidies for small business development. Under other entrepreneurship programs, 39,763 women received loans worth 738 billion . soums.
Starting from 2021, the mechanism of ” women’s notebooks ” has been introduced as a special system of phased and systemic support for women who are in particular need of social assistance. Currently, over 2.5 million women have included the notebook. Of these , more than 2 million have already received assistance. This system works by categories of women’s vulnerability, the ultimate goal of which is to gradually improve the standard of living of women.
Starting from 2018, initial payments of housing mortgage subsidies have been allocated to improve the living conditions of women.
Over the past year, 8,711,000 hospitals have been repaired for women in particular need. apartments, 12.9 thousand women improved their living conditions. For example, in 2022, primary contributions or housing rent were paid to 3,343 women who lost their breadwinner, who have parents or children with disabilities in their families. 14,000 women who lost their breadwinner were exempted from parental fees for keeping a child in preschool institutions.
A special area of social protection for women is educational benefits when entering universities, for example, in 2022 , 65,225 students were provided with interest-free educational loans in the amount of 726.8 billion soums for a period of 7 years. Contractual payments to more than 10,000 girls were reimbursed for 68.3 billion rubles . soums studying in the magistracy.
In Uzbekistan, the system of social rehabilitation and adaptation of women victims of domestic violence is also being improved; 28 rehabilitation centers with shelters for affected women are currently operating throughout the country .
They are provided with psychological, legal and social assistance. Last year, 1,168 women and children completed the rehabilitation program. The institution of a protection order began to work effectively – protection from a rapist for a period of up to one year. In 2022, 49,774 protection orders were issued to women victims of violence.
Summarizing the above, we can conclude that Uzbekistan has created a kind of unique system of social protection for women, actively implementing a set of measures aimed at developing women’s potential, achieving decent living conditions, providing employment with effective measures to improve socially vulnerable segments of the population, leading to an increase in the incomes of the general population and human capital.
