July 11, the countries worldwide mark the World Population Day and a ten years anniversary of the historical International Conference on Population and Development. Ten years ago, 179 countries adopted a decision to improve the living standards of women and their families, to ensure ac-cess to health services, education, clean environment and reproductive rights.
So, how has the life of Belarusian women changed during the past ten years? Who is luckier: a girl who is ten this year or a girl born this year? What are their prospects for the coming decade? How old are their mums ? Most probably, the mother of today's kidling is older than the mother of the girl born in 1994 was then. She is about to finish her training or already has her educa-tion, and in many cases even has some work record (today, more than 50 percent of women bear children at the age of 25 and up). Whereas in 1994, her education was still in process, and in one of every six cases she was under 20.
The last decade witnessed an aggravation of reproductive health in women and growth of gynaecologic diseases by a factor of three. In 2002, increase of pathologies in pregnant women re-sulted in decrease of the rate of normal deliveries down to 29.9 percent. By the beginning of 2003, the country had registered 4772 HIV-infected persons, among them 1357 women, 37 children aged under 15 and 723 teenagers in the 15-19 age bracket. It should be noted here, that sexually transmit-ted infections (STIs) and HIV-infections are most frequent in young people (under 30). Women get STIs three-five times oftener than men do.
A newborn girl of 2004 has more chances to be born in a town or a city than girls had 10 years ago. Currently, 71 percent of the country's population are urban citizens, where the birth rate is higher than in the countryside.
However, irrespective of the birthplace of the child in 2004, he or she has a higher risk to be born into a fatherless family : 22 percent of families with children are broken families (in 1989 – 10 percent). The country has a rapidly growing probability of marriage break through divorce. In total in 2002, they registered 66,700 marriages and 37,400 divorces. Families with children are still mak-ing a socially vulnerable part of the population. Although because of the governmental exploits, dur-ing the last three year the level of disadvantaged population has gone down. Thus, in 2002 the share of households with the incomes below the subsistence level made 24.7 percent (61.4 percent in 1995). However, still more than half of them (54.3 percent) are families with children.
What is awaiting our kids in this world? If we choose the least of two evils, the child born in 2004 is much luckier, since the death rate in the age of under one dropped almost twice compared to 1994 and makes 7.8 cases per 1000 newborns. It may be explained by the decrease of infantile mortality rate due to the following basic classes of reasons: by three times – the mortality rate from infectious and parasitic illnesses, by five times – from respiratory disorders, by 2 times – from con-genital anomalies.
How long will the child born in 2004 live? On the average – 68 years, and a girl will live 6 years longer than a boy will. Compared to the life expectancy of a child born in 1994, the indicator has dropped almost by a year.
However, this child is for sure a desired and expected one; the young family is ready to have it. Its birth may easily be regulated depending on the plans and capabilities of the young family, in-deed, a modern woman has an easy access to various contraception means, and she is better in-formed on family-planning methods. For the same reason, the risk that the birth was preceded by an abortion has lately decreased more than twofold; although it is still rather high (1000 women in the age of 15-49 make 34 abortions). However, for certain social, economic and other reasons, in many cases this child will remain the only one in the family, or during the coming decade he or she will acquire a brother or a sister at the most. We may not exclude, of course that this child will be the third in the family (some urban families are now inclined to have a three-kid family).
How has the children health changed? Compared to 1995, the morbidity rate in children has increased by 13.1 percent, compared to 1990 – by 59.6 percent. The list of children diseases is dominated by respiratory problems (70.7 percent), the runners-up are infectious and parasitic dis-eases (5.6 percent). In the third place there are disorders of the nervous system and sense organs (5.56 percent). The growth of mental disorders in children is a concern. Compared to 1990, the mor-bidity rate in children aged up to 14 has increased 2.9-fold.
Adolescents. Teenagers are under a higher risk of becoming victims of drug or alcohol addiction. In 2002, the level of only registered narcomania went up by 3.9 times compared to 1990. In 2002, the registered adolescent morbidity rate at the age of 15-17, as they fix it at treatment-and-prophylactic establishments, of alcoholism and alcoholic psychoses made 12 cases per 100,000 of this age population, showing a growth by 1.9 times compared to 1995. Strengthening of preventive measures of sexual education and distribution of information about protective aids against STIs re-sulted in decrease of venereal morbidity. In 2002, they revealed 42 cases of syphilis, 73 – of gonor-rhoea and 138 – of trichomoniasis per 100,000 teenagers, while in 1995 these figures made 218, 252 and 205 accordingly.
Education. The reform resulted in introduction of mandatory 10-years basic and 11-12-years profound secondary education, oriented towards preparation for entering a higher school. As before, the country has no difference in access to basic education among girls and boys, including those who live in urban and rural areas. The figures evidence the absence of any discrimination: as of the start of 2003, Byelorussian schools of all types trained over 1.3 million children, girls and boys al-most in parity – 49.5 percent and 50.5 percent respectively. At secondary special educational institu-tions, the softer sex already had some domination: of 115 thousand pupils, girls made 54.7 percent. A similar trend may be observed at higher schools too: out of 273,000 students, 56.8 percent are women. Boys prevail only in technical training colleges: out of 130,000 pupils, young men make 63 percent, but in this case limitations by physiological parameters are the reason, caused by the desire to protect the health of future mothers.
Of late years, the number of students and young people wishing to obtain higher education has radically increased, the higher educational institutions are teaching twice as many students now than in 1994.
A today's student. Is his or her situation better today than 10 years ago? Olga Denissova, a student of the Belarusian State University, speaks on the topic, "Being a student myself, I can an-swer unambiguously – yes! My training today is less overloaded because of the growing orientation towards self-education. My opportunities have expanded considerably with a broad introduction of computers and Internet into our life. I have a real chance to go abroad during my study to train for-eign languages, get probation training or work. Moreover, during my training I may also obtain a second higher education.
Nevertheless, being a representative of younger generation, I would like the government in future (by 2014) to take even more care about young families; the health services should improve, social support of young specialists should increase, since today it is very difficult for a young spe-cialist to find his or her first employment. Right in the age bracket of 20-24, we observe the highest unemployment rate (18.7 percent of all unemployed). The figure went down a little during the latest decade, but it is still rather high. Young specialists with economic and juridical education already have difficulties with job search. This situation develops at the background of a stable demand of technical specialists.
After obtaining their higher education, the majority of young people will decide to bind their relations through marriage. The marriage age has grown a little compared to 1994: girls get mar-ried at 22.5 on the average, and boys – at 24.5. Like the first marriage, the second one "has grown older" by a year. Being myself a girl and a future mother, I would like to see more willingness of the government to resolve the housing problems both of young specialists with families and of singles."
All the above problems have their solutions. Ten years ago, 179 countries, including Belarus, signed the Action Programme adopted by the International Conference for Population and Devel-opment (ICPD). The ICPD prescribes the steps enabling to not only save and improve the life of millions of women, but also allow every human, both women and men, to hope for a better future and to achieve a steadier development in the 21st century.
