In spite of the government's official statistics that Uzbekistan’s gross domestic product is growing year by year and the inflow of foreign investment is rising, real incomes and salaries in the country remain low, with inflation remaining high.
According to the Statistics Agency, the average monthly gross wage in Uzbekistan in January-September topped 5 million 151 thousand soums, or 400 USD.
However, not everyone gets this wages. For example, according to the Minister of Preschool and School Education Hilola Umarova, the average salary of teachers today is 3.4 million soums.
Technical staff in schools or ordinary nurses get starvation salaries at barely 2 million soums,.
When the price of a kilogram of meat in the market reaches 80-90 thousand soums, and a bag of flour costs 300 thousand soums, not to mention the price of other products.
Now, there is another vulnerable segment of society that cannot work or works at half capacity. These are the disabled people.
Today marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). In Uzbekistan, the disabled are remembered only once a year, on this day. The disabled people get only about 1 million soums of pension, which is far below the real consumer price index, let alone the medication which most of the disabled need to take.
The disabled are caught in the whirlpool of the 200-kilowatt electricity limit. The disabled do not have any reliefs in electricity and gas consumption. They pay the same as able-bodied people.
