Рост бедности среди женщин в республике Беларусь

THE RESEARCH IS CARRIED OUT DUE TO
KATHERINE & JOHN MacARTHUR FOUNDATION SUPPORT

ALEXANDRA B. ALEXANDROVA
THE EXTENT OF POVERTY AMONG WOMEN IN THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS:
THE RESULTS OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Report
MINSK - 2001

INTRODUCTION

All over the world poverty problem is paid significant attention to. In Belarus, like in the other ex-Soviet countries, due to the ideological bias poverty has not actually been considered for a long time. Poverty was treated as a feature attributed to stratified capitalist society. The phenomenon of poverty itself has been reduced to its immediate constituent - "temporal hardships of disadvantaged groups of people".

People poverty problem has acquired significance since the 1990-s, it being impossible to get silenced under some ideological taboos. Up to 1991 income distribution and national share had been almost equal among different social strata. But the beginning of the reforms fuelled differentiation. Living standards went down, the poverty problem arose, the social category of the poor occurred. The real level of income and consumption of the majority of Belarus citizens substantially dropped. Though in comparison with the world standards our living standards had been quite low at all the previous stages of economic development, the rapid widening of the poverty zone during the last decade of the XX-th century became absolutely obvious.

The last decade has obviously failed to improve the situation socially or economically. The modern development of Belarus economy is accompanied by the appearance of a number of new poor people who come under the same socially vulnerable groups as the old poor (children, retirees, toiling women, the unemployed and the homeless). Meanwhile the number of people whose job does not provide the living standards has increased.

The poverty problem greatly and particularly affects women. For it is women who go shopping, bring up children, plan family budgets, face current problems. Taking into account the impoverishment of Belarussian people, the situation with women is the most acute. There is a strong tendency to remove women to industries and jobs that are low-paid and of low prestige. The women poverty problem is aggravated by covert discrimination, an inadequate social portfolio which evidently speaks out about the existing problem of poverty feminization.

The poverty feminization exposes itself socially and psychologically through spreading adaptive tendencies, lowering subjective self-evaluation, decreasing social activity of women and grave social diseases extension. The bigger the scale of women poverty, the greater the spectrum of grave socioeconomic problems on the solution to which economic reforms in Belarus will be dependent to a great extent.

Thus, we may point out that there is a pressing problematic situation. On the one hand there is a tendency of increasing scales of poverty among women. On the other hand, there is a clear necessity to search for effective strategies to solve the problem concerned with poverty and women adaptation to life hardships.

The solution to this problem is connected with institutional changes in Belarus economy as well as with building up microlevelly a new type of women economic mentality in which the identification of poverty as a problem will be rationalized and new strategies of economic behavior will be worked out.

The research "The extent of poverty among women of the Republic Belarus: multicriteria evaluation" was carried out at the end of 2000 - at the beginning of 2001 with the MacArthurs Foundation support. The aim of the project was to determine the extension scale of women poverty spreading in Belarus, to unveil the understanding of the essence and causes of socioeconomic phenomenon of poverty in the perception of women themselves. 778 women all told were involved in the polls; the deviations of the sampling is +3%. The results of the polls can be applied to the general aggregate - women of the Republic Belarus - with the probability ranking at 0,97.

1. Poverty definition approaches in socioeconomic context in Belarus

As the polls results convey, the absolute majority of Belorussian women (95%) believe that there has been no positive change in the social-economic situation in the republic for the last two years. Moreover, 64,3% presume that this situation has gone worse. The hard economic position of women still goes on aggravating, this tendency being striking.

For 78,6% of women the problem of low income and money shortage is very painful. This problem hits the top due to its depth and acuteness which concerns almost 80% of women. Low income and living standards in Belarus along with other negative factors lead to women health decrease, to the increase of women fear for the future of their children, to physical and psychological exhaustion. More than half of women in the republic (62,3) pointed out that they were afraid for their children's future. The problem of the fear for the next generation comes second after the problem of low living standards. One of two women (51,3%) experiences serious troubles concerned with their health; for 46% the low level of healthcare poses a serious problem. 40,7% of women say that they always feel exhausted and that they are worried about it.

The aggravation of socioeconomic situation in the Republic of Belarus and general jmpoverishment of the citizens in the background, the problem of poverty feminization deepens on. Women low life standard causes a grave increase of problems affecting women health, their psychological conditions, lowering birthrates etc.

The results of the carried out research showed that women of Belarus clearly defined poverty, and destitution as its extreme. Women exactly differentiate between poverty, well-being and prosperity. The definition of poverty and the scale of its extension among the feminine part of the Belorussian population can be unveiled through several conceptual approaches to its definition.

The theoretical approaches to poverty definition. There are three basic approaches accepted worldwide to evaluate the scale of poverty: absolute, relative and subjective.

The absolute concept of poverty is based upon the determination of the subsistence minimum and the amount of resources necessary to meet this minimum. In the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus the official approaches are based upon the absolute concept. In accord with this concept the poverty level is determined at the subsistence minimum addressing the minimal physiological norms. This subsistence minimum was worked out in 1992 and comprises the minimal consumer goods (food) basket, expenditures on non-food products, services, taxes and payments included in a certain share.

In the 1970-s Dutch scholars developed the subjective approach to the poverty definition built on the presupposition that people are the best judges in what should be regarded as poverty.

According to the relative approach the poverty definition the welfare indicators are related not to the minimal demands but to the level of welfare which prevails in a given country. Within this definition there have arisen two trends. In the first one the emphasis is laid upon means for living, ability to buy goods necessary to meet basic demand. The second trend is founded on the definition of poverty trough deprivations in a broad social sense (civil legal theory of poverty).

In this research poverty was defined through deprivations by income and by consumption. This approach is the most representative as it is quite an arguable point to determine poverty relying on comparing official income with the minimum level subsistence. It is due to a number of peculiarities of Belorussian citizens economic behaviour (employment in the shadow sector of economy, non-financial payrolls, pay arrears etc.). This approach regards the poor as those who suffer deprivations due to the lack of the necessary level of resources at hand, or as those who have low income and suffer deprivations.

2. POVERTY BY INCOME: THE RESEARCH RESULTS

Sticking to the conceptual principle that common people are the best judges in how to define poverty and resorting to the deprivation theory we have worked out a women poverty definition format based on their own expertise.

It should be noted that women's awareness of the socio-economic phenomenon of poverty is of high degree of representation and reliability. Their expert evaluation reflects reality. Their motivation and involvement in the problem is of high level. The interviewers turning to women with the request to fill in the questionnaires found among the respondents a deep interest in the research topic and desire to speak out.

In the course of our research we requested that the women determine which level of income means destitution, poverty, well-being, and prosperity.

The conclusions of Belorussian women upon the determination of destitution and poverty were absolutely in line with the international standards. According to the UN, destitution means the income of $1 per capita a day. Poverty is equal to the income of $2 per capita a day. In fact, 90% of Belorussian women determine the destitution as an income, which does not exceed $30 a month. It is of interest to note that more than 40% of women believe that the destitution is an income of about $10 a month, it is but 30 cents per capita a day. Another thirty percent of women think that the destitution means an income from $10 up to $20.

In fact 90% of women determine poverty in the republic as an income not exceeding $2 per capita a day. Along with that 57,4 % of women suppose that poverty could be predetermined by an income up to $30 per capita a month.

The results of the research demonstrated that women poverty scale in the republic based on the expert evaluation of the income amount comes up to 80%. In September, 2000 more than one third of the women received an income no more than 25 thousand Belorussian devaluated roubles ($25). Another 40% in September had an income of about 25 to 40 thousand devaluated roubles which comes to about $40.

74% of Belorussian women spend up to 50% of their monthly budget on food, which, according to the international standards, is a sign of poverty. 40,3% spend more than 75% of their monthly budget on food.

In their response to the direct question "How do you estimate your welfare standards?" 13,6% of women say that they refer themselves to the destitute. 50,3% say that they are just poor. Therefore, in accordance with subjective estimation, 64% of women in the Republic of Belarus consider themselves poor.

This indicator is lower than women theoretical perception of poverty and destitution in the republic, which can be accounted by the problem of the subjective perception of one's welfare.

To reflect exact figures of the extent of poverty we made use of the so-called deprivation approach, or approach to the poverty definition on deprivation basis. This approach is another criterion for the women poverty scale evaluation in the republic.

3. POVERTY BY DEPRIVATIONS STANDARDS:
THE RESEARCH RESULTS

The deprivation technique derives from the direct analysis of the degree the vital necessities are met. Women can be referred as poor if they do not have enough resources to provide food, living standards and activity, which are thought conventional in the Belorussian society. The use of the deprivation technique determines the set of living standards and activities that can draw the line between poor women and non-poor ones.

The basic list of deprivations was set out by P. Townsend (England) being reviewed by J. Mack and S. Lansley.

In our study we also made an attempt at finding out what women think is the sign of poverty in Belarus. After Russian scholars who had put this technique into effect we drew the list of material welfare and services coming to almost 40 items. In the questionnaire the question was put down as follows: "What to your mind is a sign of poverty in Belarus nowadays?" In each item the respondent had the multiple choice (a sign of destitution, poverty, loosely connected with poverty, not connected with poverty at all). Based on the women's choice, the basic list of deprivations consisting of 15 items was built up. The line of referral of the signs to the conventional standard was chosen at 90%+ the standard deviation of the sampling.

This interval is accepted as critical in referring a sign to poverty because it is this particular percentage level that comprises the most part of responses among all the regions of Belarus.

1. No money for vitally important medicine and healthcare (93,6%)
2. Not enough food in the family (93,3%)
3. No possibility to buy clothes for the children to fit them (93,0%)
4. No money for repairing or buying clothes for all the members of the family (92,3%)
5. No money for repairing and buying new shoes for all the members of the family (92,1%).
6. Do not have and cannot buy even a non-colour TV-set (92%)
7. Do not have and cannot buy even the most ordinary furniture (91,4%)
8. Cannot buy sweets to the children (89,8%)
9. Do not have and cannot buy a refrigerator (89,7%)
10. Cannot give the children pocket money for school lunch (89,6%)
11. Cannot afford meat or fish even twice a week (89,4%)
12. Do not have money to pay for the children's holidays in camps (88,7%)
13. Do not have money to pay for childcare centers (88,0%)
14. No central heating and no money to pay for fuel (87,1%)
15. Cannot repair the house in case of emergency (87,0%)

We should point out that his list of deprivations is based on the medium data of the sampling. It does not significantly change in different locations, age, income and other features. Therefore, it can be treated as the basic list of deprivations determining women poverty in Belarus.

As we can see the signs of poverty received refer to the lowest levels of meeting basic human needs. In women's perception poverty is associated with the deprivation in meeting the physiological needs (food, drink etc.), the deprivation in meeting the defense needs (shelter, danger evasion, provision for tomorrow life etc.).

The signs of poverty associated with the lack of full value nutrition describe not just poverty but absolute extreme poverty that is destitution. The women who participated in our polls said that they could not provide for themselves, actually all of their income was spent on food. They and their families eat little, are forced to keep to a vegetarian diet, do not buy meat, fish, fruit, sweets.

The lack of is the reason possibility to buy vitally important medicine, to provide oneself with a minimum level of comfort and security is correlated in a woman's perception with poverty. Poverty for women who feel vulnerable in physiological, psychological and social context.

The defense deprivation causes grave consequences - the feeling of psychological discomfort, increased fear level, social activities lowering. Women speak of their condition of despair, constant fear, absence of prospects, impossibility to make plans.

4. THE EXTENT OF POVERTY AMONG WOMEN IN BELARUS: MULTICRITERIA EVALUATION

The research aimed at both defining the notion of poverty in Belorussian women perception and at evaluating the extent of poverty. In the world practice there are different methods of transformation of poverty signs into the quantitative toolkit of its extent evaluation.

Given the international methodology and the research practice of Russian scholars, the similarity of Russian and Belorussian sociocultural context, we have defined the extent of poverty based on the cumulative concentration of basic deprivations. Under this scheme those women are considered poor who suffer a certain quantity of any deprivations from listed in the basic set. In order to increase the validity of the toolkit suggested we employed the two variants of the poverty line: "smooth" and "strict"

According to the first variant, women who suffer two or more kinds of deprivations comprised in the basic list of deprivations are referred as poor. The research results cut it clear that in this case 71,5% of women living in Belarus are categorized as poor.

According to the second variant ("the strict poverty line") women were referred to the poor if they suffer three or more kinds of deprivations. This variant accounts for 64,4% Belorussian women.

The scale of poverty change a little from one location in Belarus to another. The top of the list in the scale of poverty (both in the "smooth" and in the "strict" variants) is occupied by Grodno region (including the town of Grodno) and Minsk region (except for the city of Minsk). In Grodno region poverty by deprivations strike 80,0% and 76,7% of women respectively. In Minsk region, the scale of poverty covers 80,2% of women according to the "smooth" variant and 73,3% in accordance with the "strict" variant.

In Brest region (including the town of Brest) the scale of poverty are the least in comparison with the other regions. 58,9% of women can be referred to as poor according the "smooth" variant, and, to take into operation the "strict variant", the percentage will be 50%. The less extent of poverty in Brest region can be explained by its traditional orientation towards the market economy and bordering on Poland.

In the city of Minsk the scale of poverty is 65,3 and 60,3 respectively.

The scale of women poverty increases proportionally enough with the age. The scale of poverty in young and middle age groups is 55-60%, and in the elderly group - 70-80%.

The marital status of a woman in a way influence poverty. But the character of the link in this case is not quite usual. The results of the research reveal that the number of married and unmarried poor women, in fact, is about the same: 61,7 % and 60,3% respectively. Poverty is deepened among divorced women (76,0%), widows (74,6%) and women with non-official marital status (93,3%).

Occupational - status position did not affect the scale of poverty. On the whole, poverty turned out to be less connected with social factors and more - with individual and psychological ones. To prove it, among the women who treat their internal state as hopelessness there are twice as many poor as among those who are self-confident - 80,7% against 44%.

Multicriteria evaluation of poverty. The research results have demonstrated that poverty by deprivations closely correlates with the women's subjective perception of their income status and real income. So, among those regarding themselves as the destitute 90% actually suffer "smooth" variant poverty by deprivations whereas 85% experience the "strict" variant of this sort of poverty. 83,2% poor people by deprivations in the "smooth" variant (77,6% in the "Strict" one) subjectively determine their status as poverty.

Among those who are paid less than 25 thousand Belorussian roubles ($25) a month the number of the poor by deprivations within the "smooth" variant comes up to 82,1% (77,1% - in the "strict" variant). For women whose monthly income is within the margin of $25-$40 the extent of poverty is 77,5% and 70,1% consequently.

(Distribution of poverty into the following categories: destitution, poverty, middle level of welfare)

The multicriteria approach to the definition of the extent of poverty which we employed in this research has demonstrated that poverty in the republic strikes 64-70% of women.

The extent of poverty by income as we have mentioned before affects 74% of the women. It means that their income does not exceed $2 a day.

The extent of poverty under the subjective evaluation of one's own income status comes to 64%. This particular number of Belorussian women think themselves poor.

The extent of women poverty by deprivations is 64,4% of the whole feminine population of the republic if comes under the most strict evaluations. Under the "smooth" variant 71,5% of Belorussian women are referred to the category of the poor.

The women poverty problem is aggravated by covert discrimination, an inadequate social portfolio which evidently speaks out about the existing problem of poverty feminization.

The poverty feminization exposes itself socially and psychologically through spreading adaptive tendencies, lowering subjective self-evaluation, decreasing social activity of women.

The solution to this problem is connected with institutional changes in Belarus economy as well as with building up microlevelly a new type of women economic mentality in which the identification of poverty as a problem will be rationalized and new strategies of economic behaviour will be worked out.

5. THE POVERTY REASONS AND THE STRATEGY OF ADAPTATION TO HARDSHIPS OF LIFE

The research aimed at both defining the extent of poverty within the multicriteria evaluation methodology and at unveiling its reasons and strategies of adaptation to life hardships.

The research results have shown that Belorussian women differ in their perception of the adaptation process to life hardships and of overcoming poverty. The strategies of adaptation to life hardships are in the making.

82,1% of Belorussian women suggest that the government guarantee each citizen an income level that is not lower than the subsistence minimum. Along with that women thinks that the government help is non-sufficient and ineffective. Only 3% of women think that the government efficiently helps them to overcome material hardships. More than half of all women (59,8%) consider that local authorities responsible for social help do not give them any hand. 35,6% of the respondents point out that the government gives them some aid although insufficient and ineffective.

The poverty reasons analysis has shown that it is government but not the individual peculiarities and behaviour strategies that women are inclined to lay responsibility for their hard material conditions. Thus the majority of women in the Republic of Belarus treats the underlying factors of poverty as something external, dependent on the government and its socioeconomic policy.

87,5 % of women consider low wages (inconsistent with the international payment regulations) the reason for poverty.

The second widespread reason for poverty perceived by women is their health decrease which is caused by the ecological environment in the republic (36,7%).

The third place is attributed to the insufficient government aid (35,9%).

The fourth position in the poverty reasons hierarchy is given to the problems connected with the unjust system of income distribution among the citizens, the increasing differentiation in income (34,4%) and the social organization of the Republic of Belarus (31,2%).

The fifth place is occupied by arrears in wages, though still inadequate (30,7%).

As the poverty reasons women mentioned such social things as a family breakup, a divorce (26,4%), an upbringing of children in one-parent families (26,3%), a loss of job (28,7%).

Thus women of the republic perceive that the state is to a great extent responsible for the poverty reasons. The majority of Belorussian women suggest that the government guarantee each citizen an income level that is not lower than the subsistence minimum. Along with that women thinks that the government help is non-sufficient and ineffective.

Given the peculiarities of the economic perception of Belorussian citizens associated with a sufficient orientation towards government aid and support, we made efforts in our study to trace the role of individual characteristics of women which hypothetically could serve as the poverty reasons.

The results have indicated that more than a third of women (33,4%) refer to the lack of necessary education as the poverty reason. Another 29,6% as the poverty reason mentions the lack of adequate qualifications and skills. About a third of the respondents believe that the obstacle to overcome poverty is confined within their individual psychological problems: uncertainty of one's own abilities, pessimism (27,5%), lack of purposefulness (23,7%), low-level activity and initiative (22,8%). Furthermore, it should be pointed out that as the poverty reason 40% of the women claim such a grave social disease as women's alcoholism.

The poverty reasons analysis has put into view a problem of the difference of what sort of help women expect to get and what help they do really receive. Despite the fact that it is government that women lay responsibility on for helping them to come out of poverty, they work out certain practical tools and mechanisms to overcome life hardships, the government not participating in it at all.

As it has previously been mentioned, 82,1% of Belorussian women suggest that the government guarantee each citizen an income level that is not lower than the subsistence minimum. On the other hand, the same number of women (81%) facing life hardships rely only upon themselves. Actually only few rely on government institutions and mechanisms to get out of the poverty mess. Only 6,7% bargains on the help of the organization they work for; 3,4% - on the government represented by social services. No aid is expected on the part of trade-unions and public organizations (0,6%).

CONCLUSION

What are toe ways out for women to overcome poverty problems in the republic?

72,4% of women suppose that in order to improve the economic situation in Belarus the market economy reforms should be fuelled. 65,9% of women think that a government support is to be given to private entrepreneurship. 68,9% believes that the financial support of loss-making enterprises is to be cut short. 60,4% of the respondents perceive that instead of unaddressed aid to kolkhozs and sovkhozs there ought to be the increase of wages and pensions to rural citizens.

On the whole the majority of women suggests that it is preferable that Belarus should develop a market economy model with some elements of government regulation. As to the state regulation, 38,0% of women prefer a slight one for Belarus, and 33,7% - substantial one.

The research results allow us to surmise that in the development of the strategy of overcoming women poverty problem there is an evident positive mechanism. Gradual understanding of the fact that it is naпve to demand that the government adequately keep its subjects from poverty urges women to develop their own individual mechanisms to overcome life hardships. The deeper the understanding of poverty as the problem demanding an independent solution, the more closer the women adaptation strategies approach market strategies, which help the women to be absorbed in the market environment as competitive players. In this situation the government of Belarus is to strengthen the mechanisms of market reforms implementation, to support the formation and development of the market strategies of behaviour. The government regulation to solve the poverty problem ought to address particularly those social groups who is not and will not be able to adopt the new mechanisms of economy.

The author of this research is planning to go into details of the adaptation and poverty overcoming strategy at the next stage of the study which is going to take place in the spring of 2001.

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The information about the author of the research

Alexandra Alexandrova, Master of Arts in Sociology. Professional sociologist in economic sociology, poverty, youth employment, social policy and gender problems. I have an eight-year experience in research and public work. The author of more than 30 articles in scientific and public journals and magazines.

Contact address and telephone: E-mail: asa@whru.com; тел. (81037517) 2612254; (095) 3165647