SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE
ARE THE MAIN PRIORITIES OF THE REFORMS
Timur Akhmedov,
Head of Department, the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies
under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
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Annotation
This article analyzes the current social policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, developed and carried out in the
context of ongoing reforms in the country in the field of health care, education, and social support to the poorest
segments of population. It was noted that its relevance, focus, and validity on the principles of humanism and social
justice.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), today only 45% of the world's
population has access to social protection. At the same time, 29% of the world's population uses
comprehensive social security services; 68% of people of retirement age receive elder-age
pension. 56% of the world's population is deprived of opportunities of health care, which is
especially true for rural residents. These facts indicate that it is vital for each country of the world
to address the issues of improving the effective management of the social sphere.
International practice shows the conjugacy of a market economy with a set of problems:
the differentiation of society, inflation, unemployment, decline of living standards, including the
incomes of population. In this context, one of the leading principles of renewal and development
of Uzbekistan is based on the implementation of a strong social policy at all stages of
transformation. According to this, every year about 60% of the state budget goes to the social
sphere: education, health care, social protection of the poor layers of the population, culture.
It should be noted, that today there is a need in the transition to move to a qualitatively
new level of social policy in order to improve social protection mechanisms. In this regard, social
sphere is among the main priority areas of Strategy of Actions. We should note that special
emphasis paid on the needs of population, strengthening social justice and increasing the
welfare of people, when developing appropriate measures in this direction.
A special role in the implementation of these tasks paid to the mechanisms of direct
dialogue with the people - the Virtual Reception and the People’s Reception of the President of
the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Due to this, based on the number of appeals and proposals of citizens, a list of priorities in
the social sphere was formed, the distinguishing features of the implementing reforms in the
social sphere were identified, implementation mechanisms are defined in three key areas:
The first is improvement of living conditions of population, especially low-income people
segment. In this direction, measures are being taken to meet the housing needs of the
population. In 2018, it is planned to provide about 1.5 thousand apartments for young families,
3 thousand apartments for people with disabilities, 100 apartments for military personnel. In
rural areas, more than 20 thousand houses with all the necessary conditions will be built at
preferential prices and loans.
Compared to previous years, the volume of house construction has increased significantly.
For example, this indicator has increased by 20 times compared to 2007, by 3.5 times to 2010,
and 2 times to 2014. At the same time, taking into account the needs of population, the criteria
for obtaining concessional mortgage loans were updated. According to the new system, a list of
individuals with disabilities who need to improve their living conditions has been compiled.
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