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1 Childhood in Kyrgyzstan – Report on the Current Situation Preliminary

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1 Childhood in Kyrgyzstan – Report on the Current Situation Preliminary Childhood in Kyrgyzstan – Report on the Current Situation Preliminary Note This report was composed in the context of the study project “Growing up in Kyrgyzstan and Germany: Structures and Conditions”, a development cooperation of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and three Bishkek Universities, which has been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) since 2009 1. In order to gain knowledge about childhood in Kyrgyzstan, it is important to highlight different main problems or policies respectively, which are related to child well-being in one way or another. As shown in the following, “structures and conditions of growing up” is a broad field, which ranges from medical topics and the social implications of the educational system to the traditional structure of Kyrgyz families and urgent political problems like child labour. This text is meant to give an overview on the situation in Kyrgyzstan and therefore is not able to give a deep insight in the particular fields. One difficulty in the process of finding meaningful data that should be mentioned is the nearly unmanageable amount of sources, particularly on the internet. The subsequent second problem however, is even more decisive. To differentiate between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’, reliable and unreliable data, often means not only to choose between different types of survey methods but to consider different perspectives on the same issue. What does this mean? Kyrgyzstan is still in the process of a long-winded transformation, which was inevitable after the delusion of the Soviet Union and its subsequent gaining of political, economic and cultural independence in 1991. It should be pointed out though that the country is anything but totally independent nowadays. Due to persistent economic problems and structural deficits, the young democracy is still in need of international sponsorship and therefore highly dependent on external institutions and expertise. International organisations like the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) or the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provide the necessary funds and programmes. In return, beneficiary countries like Kyrgyzstan pledge themselves to improve politics in order to achieve a defined set of goals, which are institutionalised e.g. in the Millennium Development Goals. This ‘contract’ bears two oppositional ambitions: While the poor countries will always be anxious to represent themselves in the best possible light, the perspective of the ‘sponsors’ will be rather critical. This leads back to the initial question of why there are often different readings on the same issue. The researcher always should keep these divergent perspectives in mind. 1. National Profile Kyrgyzstan is located in the middle of Central Asia, bordering China (to the east), Kazakhstan (to the north), Tajikistan (to the south) and Uzbekistan (to the west). The smallest of the Central Asian countries extends 900 kilometres from west to east and 415 kilometres from north to south. The whole area covers 198.5 thousand square kilometres. Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country – about 80% of the area is covered by mountains and 90% of the territory is higher than 1500m above sea level. The most famous mountain range is the Tien- 1 At this point the author wants to express his heartfelt gratitude to Altynai Abdykadyrova, Albina Mailybaeva, Regina Molchanova and – especially – Talant Erkinbekov for the gathering of information from Russian- and Kyrgyz-speaking sources. The report was compiled on the basis of a similar article on childhood in Germany, cf. Bühler-Niederberger, Doris / König, Alexandra (2008): Children in Germany. In: Epstein, Irving / Limage, Leslie J. (Hg.): The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide (Europe). Westport/London. 1 Shan (“Tenir-Too” in Kyrgyz) running from northeast to southwest. The climate is continental, with average temperatures from -30 ° C in the winter to 27° C in the summer . There are many lakes, among them the largest and most popular one – the Issyk-Kul, with a size of 6236 square kilometres 2. The territory of Kyrgyzstan is divided into seven regions (“oblasts”): Talas, Chui, Issyk-Kul, Batken, Jalal-Abad, Naryn and Osh. In addition, Bishkek and the second largest city Osh are administratively independent cities. Each oblast is divided into districts. The republic consists of 22 cities and 40 administrative districts. The capital of the republic is Bishkek 3. The first Kyrgyz state, the Kyrgyz Khanate, existed from the sixth to the thirteenth century. Its territory extended from contemporary southern and central Siberia to the east of Kazakhstan and eastern Kyrgyzstan. At that time, the Kyrgyz people had trade relations with China, Tibet and Persia. The territory began to diminish in the eleventh and twelfth centuries due to the expansion of the Mongol Empire headed by Genghis Khan. The region of present Kyrgyzstan was taken by the Mongols in 1219 and remained under repressive rule until 1510. Afterwards the Kyrgyz were ruled by the Kalmyks (17th century) and the Manchus (18 th century). In the early 19th century parts of Kyrgyzstan belonged to the Uzbek Khanate (also: Kokand Khanate), which was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1876 – in this course Kyrgyzstan became part of the Empire too. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic became part of the Soviet Union – in the beginning as Kara- Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast (1924), then as the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic (1926) and finally, as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic (1936) 4. Becoming an independent and democratic state, Kyrgyzstan has undergone significant economical and political changes. Prior to 1991, the state was dependent on the economy of the Soviet Union. Hence, the new government had to face substantial restructuring and accomplish essential market reforms, which were redeemed temporarily due to a greater planning role of the state in the late 1990s 5. Kyrgyzstan nowadays is a poor country with a predominantly agricultural structure. Cotton, tobacco, wool and gold make up the main export products. The gross domestic product (GDP) grew more than 6% annually in 2007 and 2008, but due to the worldwide financial crisis, it sank to -1% (estimated) in 2009 6. GDP per capita expressed in US dollars has increased from $1000 in 1995 (all time low) to $2.100 in 2009, which means 184 th place in comparison to the world (a total of 228 countries) 7. The Gini coefficient 8, which is used for measuring the inequality of income, was 0,380 in 2007. This figure decreased steadily within the last ten years (1997: 0,470) 9. Despite this positive trend, corruption remains one of the biggest problems in Kyrgyzstan. According to the Corruption Perception Index, the country is among the 15 states with the highest corruption and the lowest confidence range 10 . The population is 5.482.000 according to estimation by the United Nations in 2009 11 . The average age in Kyrgyzstan is very low, which means that there is a significant share of people of working age and children. The proportion of people under 17 years is 37,1% (i.e. 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Kyrgyzstan, 25.01.10. 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Kyrgyzstan, 25.01.10. 4 Library of Congress / Federal Research Division (2007): Country Profile: Kyrgyzstan, January 2007, p. 2. (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Kyrgyzstan.pdf) 5 Ibid. p. 6. 6 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html, 14.01.10. 7 UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS (2009): TransMONEE database 2009 (http://www.transmonee.org/) and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html, 14.01.10. 8 “A low Gini coefficient indicates a more equal distribution, with 0 corresponding to complete equality, while higher Gini coefficients indicate more unequal distribution, with 1 corresponding to complete inequality”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_index, 02.02.10. 9 UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS (2009): TransMONEE database 2009 (http://www.transmonee.org/). 10 http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008/cpi_2008_table, 02.02.10. 11 http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/wpp2008_text_tables.pdf, 05.12.09. 2 more than one-third) of the total population; over 10% are not older than 4 years. In contrast, only 6,7% of total are more than 60 years old. 56,3% of the Kyrgyz people are workforce (18- 59 years) 12 . The age structure of the Kyrgyz population is characterized by regional differences. The proportion of children and young people is greatest in the southern regions (from 38,8% in the Batken region up to 40,3% in Osh). The population of the North is older; there is a high percentage of persons of working age (from 52,3% in the Naryn region up to 67,1% in Bishkek) 13 . Nearly two-thirds of the republic's population live in rural areas (64%), slightly over one third (36%) are townspeople 14 . Provinces with a high number of urban population are Chui (including the capital Bishkek), Osh, Jalal-Abad and Issyk-Kul 15 . According to a census of 1999, the three biggest ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan were Kyrgyz (64,9%), Uzbek (13,8%) and Russian (12,5%)16 . Estimates of 2007 indicate a portion of 68,9% Kyrgyz, 14,4% Uzbek and 9,1% Russian 17 . According to the Library of Congress, about 15.000 Russians left the country annually in the early 2000s. Ethnic composition in Kyrgyzstan is heterogeneous by regions, too. The main part of the Russian-speaking population is concentrated in Bishkek and Chui oblast. Uzbeks, traditionally engaged in agriculture, are predominantly in the southern regions and the city of Osh 18 . Along with Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic is the only Central Asian country, which has kept the Russian language as official language.
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