Uzbekistan

UZBEKISTAN, A CENTRAL ASIAN country with around 27 million inhabitants, became independent in 1991 at the time of the disintegration of the Soviet [Page 1130]Union. Even during the Soviet era, Uzbekistan was known to be poor, with over 45 percent of its population having incomes lower than the then-standard minimum. At the end of the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had the second lowest per capita income among the 15 re-publics—the lowest was Tajikistan. Its level of income inequality, however, as measured by the Gini coefficient, was lower than the Soviet average.

In the post-Soviet era, the social assistance programs that were common under communism were no longer sustainable. Budgetary transfers from Moscow, once accounting for as much as one-fifth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), nearly vanished. And the cotton sector, a chief source of income, ran into diminishing yields in terms of output per hectare, according to R. Pomfret.

In 2001, the poverty rate in the country was 27.5 percent, or 6.8 million people. And based on 2002 and 2003 government surveys, it was concluded that poverty was decreasing, but with varying degrees depending on geography. For example, the decline in poverty was much more noticeable in the area surrounding the capital city, Tashkent, by World Bank standards. In 1999, 41 percent of the population were aged under 16 and 62 percent lived in rural areas, by Economic Intelligence Unit statistics. Over two-thirds (70 percent) of the poor live in rural areas, where the poverty rate in 2003 was estimated at 30.5 percent, versus 22.5 percent in urban areas. The highest concentration of the poor resides in the southern and northern regions of the country, with the poverty rate in the south being nearly four times that of Tashkent.

Diseases associated with poverty are on the rise, such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. About 50 percent of children suffer from various degrees of vitamin A deficiency and 60 percent of women of fertile age suffer from anemia due to iron deficiency. The poor have been exposed to effects of environmental degradation. The diversion of water for intensive irrigation use throughout central Asia has prevented sufficient flow of rivers into the Aral Sea (once the fourth largest body of water in the world), thus leading to a water level reduction of the lake by 21 meters and surface shrinkage to nearly one-third of its natural size.

What is left of most of the Aral Sea is a salt and sand desert covering an area of 3.8 million hectares. Because of soil salinity, what used to be an area of sustainable agricultural activity, cattle breeding, and fishery for communities near the lake has nearly come to a halt. Increases in morbidity rates, particularly among women of fertile age in the same region, are also common, according to the World Bank.

Poverty and income disparity, coupled with authoritarian governance, are thought to be behind recent turmoil in the country. Opposition to the government is regularly and brutally suppressed. The government labels dissidents protesting unjust economic conditions and widespread poverty as extremists and terrorists. Many are accused, justly or unjustly, of being members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or Hizb ut-Tahrir, both fundamentalist groups bent on overthrowing the government.

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