Social conditions
On paper, the authorities of Belarus (Belarus) guarantee full employment, the right to school, care, care and pension. However, many years of financial difficulties made many Belarusians unemployed and degraded social benefits. Sky high inflation eroded the value of pensions and other benefits. Wealth is nowadays described as crisp but evenly distributed.
The proportion of people living in poverty, according to official figures, has decreased, seen over several decades. There are several measures of poverty that can be used, but the World Bank described the change like this in a 2017 report: from nearly 42 percent poor at the turn of the millennium to just under 6 percent in 2016. But almost half of households spend half their disposable income on food.
Compared to other former Soviet republics, except for the Baltics, Belarus has relatively high social and economic development. The distribution of income is relatively even. Belarus does not have the great contrasts between the poor and the rich, as in, for example, Russia. But poverty is still more pronounced in rural areas, where many households still lack running water and central heating. For many people in the countryside, their own crops play a big role in maintaining.
The retirement age was previously 55 years for women and 60 years for men. In 2016, however, President Lukashenko decided to gradually raise it to 58 years for women and 63 years for men to 2022. The average life expectancy for men is clearly shorter than that for women. In 2018, a man could expect to live to 69 years, a woman to 79.
A doctor from the MSF, in 2019, described resistant tuberculosis (which resists antibiotics) as one of the more difficult problems for Belarusian healthcare. Often, the picture of the disease is related to the patient’s abuse of alcohol. Other diseases also spread under these conditions.
Drug abuse is behind the widespread spread of HIV / AIDS, but access to medicines for diseases such as HIV / AIDS and hepatitis C has improved in recent years thanks to the fact that it has been possible to produce cheap drug copies.
How the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl (in neighboring Ukraine) has affected the general health situation is debated. After the disaster, Belarussian scientists have linked the radiation from the wrecked reactor to a series of diseases and malformations in people from the affected areas. However, these findings are refuted by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which in their reports state that the only consequence to health that has been proven so far is an increase in the number of thyroid cancer cases in children. That increase, on the other hand, is dramatic. In ten years, it increased from two new cases a year to almost 2,000 cases a year.
Women make up about half of the workforce and Belarus is considered the most equal country among the former Soviet republics. However, women are underrepresented in politics and at top positions in, for example, business and government.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, homosexuality has been formally legal in Belarus, but homosexuals are often subjected to threats and harassment. In 2013, the Ministry of Justice rejected an application from the organization Gaybelarus to get officially registered, which is a prerequisite for being able to work openly. The Ministry justified the rejection that the organization’s statutes “do not promote the social maturity and general development of Belarusian youth”. Gaybelarus said it wanted to defend the rights of gay, bisexual and transsexual people.
FACTS – SOCIAL CONDITIONS
Infant Mortality: 3 per 1000 births (2018)
Percentage of HIV infected: 0.5 percent (2018)
Proportion of HIV infected among young women
0.1 percent (2018)
Proportion of HIV infected among young men: 0.1 percent (2018)
Proportion of population with access to clean water: 98.0 percent (2015)
Proportion of the population having access to toilets: 97.8 percent (2017)
Public expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP: 6.1 percent (2015)
Public expenditure on health care per person: US $ 318 (2016)
Proportion of women in parliament: 35 percent (2018)
2010
December
Government reformed – new head of government
Lukashenko is reforming the government and Mikhail Mjasnikovich becomes new prime minister after Sergei Sidorsky.
Lukashenko wins big
Presidential elections are held and according to the Election Commission, Lukashenko receives 79.7 percent of the votes, against 2.5 percent for the nearest challenger Andrej Sannikau. The turnout is stated to be 90 percent. OSCE election observers are prevented from attending the voting count, and half of the cases they can observe are handled poorly or very poorly.
September
Decision on Presidential Election
Decides that the presidential election will be held on December 19, several months earlier than expected and earlier than the Constitution stipulates;
Editor of Charter 97 found hanging
The regime-critical journalist Aleh Byabenin, editor of Charter 97, is found hanged. According to police, he has committed suicide, but many suspect crimes. His website has been pressurized by the regime.
June
Russian Gazprom reduces deliveries
Russian gas company Gazprom reduces its gas deliveries to Belarus by 60 percent. As a reason, unpaid bills are stated, but Lukashenko threatens to stop Russian gas through Belarus to the rest of Europe.
May
Activist sentenced to prison
A regime-critical activist is sentenced to multi-year prison sentences.
March
The Raid against Charter 97
Police conduct a raid against the Democratic Movement’s Charta 97 office in Minsk. Several journalists are beaten and computers seized.