On February 26, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on solving problems and social support for women.

Women make up almost half of the country’s population – 17 million. Ensuring their interests, strengthening the role of women in society is an important direction of the social policy of the state.

Over the past four years, 2 laws, 6 decrees and resolutions of the President have been adopted in this area. A new Committee for Women and Gender Equality has been formed in the Senate.

About 1.4 thousand women occupy leadership positions at the national and regional levels, more than 43 thousand – at the district and city levels.

Great opportunities have been created for girls to receive a qualitative education, acquire a profession and work. Women make up 48 percent of the students. According to the procedure introduced last year, 950 girls in need of social protection were enrolled in higher education institutions based on a state grant.

Support is provided for their entrepreneurial initiatives. Last year, employment was provided for about 585 thousand women, more than 36 thousand women were trained in professions.

A “Women’s Notebook” mechanism has been introduced to study and address women’s problems. 433 thousand women were included in the “notebook” based on 9 criteria, an electronic database was formed. The problems of 80 thousand women included in the “notebook” have been resolved.

Measures for employment, social support, expansion of medical and psychological assistance to women, prevention of divorce were discussed at the meeting.

“The most difficult, complex issues concern women. Our people are making ever higher demands. Accordingly, we must create decent conditions. Anyone who is not deeply aware of this task cannot work as a leader”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

In his Address to the Oliy Majlis, the Head of the state proposed to create a Republican Public Women’s Council.

Recently, the establishment of this council was completed, Tanzila Narbayeva was appointed Chairperson of the Senate. It was noted that the public council should carry out systematic work to increase the social and political activity of women, support their entrepreneurship, education and professional development, assist them in finding a decent job, protecting their health and solving housing issues.

Hokims and heads of sectors were given appropriate instructions on solving the problems of women included in the “Women’s Notebook”, ensuring their employment through sewing, handicrafts, home-based work, poultry farming and the allocation of sowing areas.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was instructed to train about 70 thousand participants in the “Women’s Notebook” in entrepreneurship and professions in demand on the labor market.

The Head of the state emphasized that non-governmental organizations provide effective assistance to women in these matters, in connection with which it is necessary to provide them with premises and provide them with grants.

The task has been set in each district to provide entrepreneurs with a preferential lease for up to 30 years an unused part of colleges transferred to the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations for organizing training and production workshops in them. It is planned to allocate 70 billion UZS from the Employment Fund.

Besides, 2 trillion UZS of credit resources will be directed through the People’s Bank to attract women to entrepreneurship.

“A system of incentives will be introduced for women who want to get a higher education, have the necessary abilities and knowledge, but for certain reasons cannot fulfill this dream. That is, girls in need who are brought up without one of their parents, as well as single women who have lost their breadwinner, will be paid the contract for studying at the university by the hokimiyat and the university. This is a new system. We couldn’t do that before. Now there is an opportunity for this”, the President noted.

Issues of women’s health protection were discussed at the meeting. It was noted that at places, especially in remote areas, an adequate level of quality of medical care is not provided.

For example, 30 percent of women of fertile age are diagnosed with anemia in the Altinsay district of Surkhandarya region. Women in the district often suffer from diseases of the respiratory, digestive and cardiovascular systems.

Taking into account this state of affairs, it was instructed to take under special control the health of 44 thousand women in need of medical care, to assign medical teams to them and to carry out the treatment with the involvement of specialized doctors.

The task was set to carry out in-depth medical screening by the end of the year, including cancer screening of nearly 9 million women. To prevent cancer, 323 thousand girls will be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus.

It was determined that the Fund for the Support of Women will annually allocate 30-50 billion UZS for the treatment of women in need.

The need for broad adoption of a healthy lifestyle among women, an increase in the number of physical culture and dance clubs was indicated. Instructions were given on organizing women’s tourist trips around the country, their treatment in sanatoriums.

Besides, single mothers will be provided with benefits for the admission of their children to preschool education institutions and parental payments.

The main attention was paid to the problems associated with housing. There are still many women in need of housing due to divorce, unemployment and poverty. The Head of the state is deeply aware of this problem and always prioritizes the creation of decent conditions. In recent years, thousands of women in need have received new housing. Besides, a system has been introduced to pay low-income women an initial housing payment.

During the videoconference, additional measures on the current issue were identified. It was noted that each region will be allocated 10 billion UZS to provide housing for women living in non-residential premises, and 5 billion UZS to provide housing for girls growing up without fathers.

These funds will be used to pay the down payment for housing. 11 billion UZS will be allocated to women to compensate for rental housing.

The need was noted for improving the system of qualified legal assistance to women, including those subjected to harassment.

It was proposed to establish a separate state award to encourage the merits of women to the state and society, the success they have achieved in their field of activity.

Responsible leaders and women expressed their views on the issues discussed at the meeting.

UzA