Suicide Rate Rises in Rural Uzbekistan

Human rights defenders in Uzbekistan have drawn attention to increasing numbers of suicides in the countryside, which they believe are motivated by economic hardship.

Surat Ikramov, leader of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan, says most of the cases identified by his organisation are in Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions. These areas suffer from a range of problems – high population density, soaring unemployment, and shortages of land, water, energy and food.

Ikramov cited one recent suicide involving a resident of Kashkadarya’s Nishan district who left behind three children.

A local resident said there was something like suicide area in the district. "The topography of Ok Altyn village in Nishan district can be defined by houses where people have hanged themselves,” he said.

Local human rights defenders Jora Muradov and Narpulat Rajabov said at least ten cases of suicide were recorded in April and May. Some of them were women who set themselves on fire.

"People sometimes have nothing to eat, and many families don’t have even basic foodstuffs," Rajabov said.

Among those at risk are young people with few employment prospects.

"The lack of jobs forces adolescent boys from the villages have to go off to Tashkent [capital of Uzbekistan] and work as as day labourers, earning about 2,500 soms [one US dollar a day] for hard physical labour," Rajabov said.

Official figures put the unemployment rate at around 0.2 or 0.3 per cent, but other estimates are much higher. The World Bank believes almost 20 per cent of a population of more than 28 million is out of work.

Some five million people from Uzbekistan are believed to be working abroad as migrant labour.

Another contributory factor to suicides, rights activists say, are the pressures, social and official, which farmers are under. For example, they can be summarily stripped of their land lease – and thus their livelihood – if they fail to meet the quota for grain or cotton they are set by the authorities.

Official statistics on the suicide rate are not made public, and the authorities cite a World Health Organisation report from 2005 which listed Uzbekistan among states with low rates of between ten and 20 suicides per 100,000 people.

An Uzbek health ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said confidential figures indicated a growing problem.

"The subject of suicide is one of the biggest taboos here since it reflects badly on the authorities," the official said. "In reality, we have noted a 17.4 per cent in suicides in the health ministry statistics, resulting from hunger in rural communities.”

Uzbekistan’s deputy chief prosecutor Alisher Sharafutdinov denied claims by human rights activists that suicide is on the rise. He said the prosecution service had accurate data, but added that it was not for public consumption.

Sharafutdinov said Uzbekistan had adequate facilities for providing help and psychological support to people vulnerable to suicide.

Ikramov said the most pressing need was to alleviate the economic conditions that forced people to consider suicide.

"If the authorities don’t address the dire conditions facing rural residents, suicides will continue to be widespread, and the districts [where it is prevalent] will turn into one big cemetery," he said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.