Uzbekistan Strives for the Person Receiving Assistance to Feel Like a Full-Fledged Member of Society
An analysis of the adopted laws of Uzbekistan to ensure social protection of the population shows: during 1991-2016, 24 laws were adopted in this direction, and from 2017 to 2023 – 44. In addition, hundreds of other legal acts are being implemented.
Based on this, in the last period the bulk of State Budget expenditures have been directed to the social sphere. In particular, this year almost 50 percent of the total expenditures of the State budget, or 151.5 trillion soums (as of February 28, 2024, $1 = 12,501.5 soums) will be directed to education, healthcare, social protection of the population, development of science, culture and sports, providing housing for those in need and more.
In the new edition of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, our country is defined as a social state. Accordingly, large-scale practical work is being carried out. In particular, on June 1, 2023, the Presidential Decree “On a set of measures to provide high-quality social services and assistance to the population, as well as establishing a system for their effective control” was adopted. This was an important step in taking work in this direction to a new level.
A unified system of social protection of the population has been created, as well as a separate institutional body – the National Agency for Social Protection under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Thus, the regional departments of the agency began their activities, and in districts and cities – social service centers “Inson”, the provision of professional social services and assistance to the population will be directly related to the activities of mahallas. This will help to fully reach the needy sections of the population, ease their burden, and solve problems by providing high-quality and professional support.
At the February videoconference meeting chaired by the President of Uzbekistan, the need for radical reform of the system, ensuring the targeting and effectiveness of social assistance was emphasized. Priority tasks in this direction have been identified.
Today, there are social workers only in mahallas of 28 districts. The task has been set to organize their activities in all mahallas of the country by June 1 of this year.
Bringing 49 social services to mahallas, such as providing people with disabilities with prostheses, processing benefits and care for children left without care, caring for the elderly and lonely, in turn, places great responsibility on social workers of mahallas.
In fact, if families in need are targeted and a transparent system of informing residents of mahallas is created, as well as an individual approach to each social service and monitoring, this will certainly help those who really need help.
Attention to social protection issues is reflected in the life of society. If we consider, say, the work of assigning benefits, we will see how its volume has increased significantly. In particular, in 2021, 404 thousand 763 people received various types of benefits, and today – more than 600 thousand. At the same time, the amount of social benefits is constantly increasing.
Separately, it can be noted that now the list of benefit recipients will primarily include families of persons with disabilities, deprived of parental care, those who have lost a breadwinner, as well as those who, for health reasons or other reasons, cannot work for a long time. When other citizens are included in the “social register,” not only their income will be taken into account, but also their expenses (living conditions, utilities, taxes, loan payments, etc.).
Another important aspect: from 2025, multidisciplinary social service centers will be opened in 40 districts for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, their health improvement and training in caring for them. This will improve the standard of living of people receiving social assistance.
At the meeting, special attention was paid to current issues on creating a barrier-free life for people with disabilities. In order to create a barrier-free environment for their education and employment, the practice of determining the level of working capacity will be stopped, and disability will be determined not by illness, but by taking into account a person’s ability to act independently, communicate and participate in social life.
It has been determined that the designer of the construction of buildings and structures should conduct a mandatory examination of creating a comfortable environment for people with disabilities, as well as take measures to organize a barrier-free environment for them in public transport, at train stations and in public places. The introduction of the new system will facilitate their integration into society.
Overall, the main goal of the innovations is to ensure accuracy, transparency and fairness in the social protection system. So that the person receiving help strives for an active life and feels like a full-fledged member of society.
