VZCZCXRO8919
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0330/01 0721459
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131459Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2460
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4933
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2694
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2559
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 3177
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000330 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SOCI EAID TX
 
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR BABY BOOM BUT TURKMEN 
FAMILIES UNLIKELY TO OBEY 
 
¶1.  (U)  Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  SUMMARY:  Alarmed at falling birth rates, the Government of 
Turkmenistan is taking new steps to encourage families to have more 
children.  The government provides modest benefits for mothers and 
children, and is trying to come up with other new ways to persuade 
women to have more babies.  Turkmen women, however, are unlikely to 
heed the call, given the difficult economic conditions and the 
troubled health care system here.  If the government were to focus 
more on improving the quality of, and access to public healthcare, 
and took a stab at reducing corruption, the population decline could 
be potentially slowed or stopped.  END SUMMARY. 
 
MODEST INCREASE IN BENEFITS 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  On March 6, local press reported that the president 
signed a law amending the Social Welfare Code of Turkmenistan.  The 
change modestly increases maternity benefits that Turkmen women will 
receive beginning on July 1, 2009.  The benefits include a one-time 
"maternity grant," as well as a monthly allowance for all mothers 
with children under the age of three.  The new benefits will also be 
dispersed retroactively, meaning that all families with children 
under the age of three on July 1, not just children born after that 
date, will receive benefits, the semi-official website 
Turkmenistan.ru reported.  The new social welfare code appeared in 
the March 7 issue of the official paper Neytralniy Turkmenistan, but 
the code did not provide details regarding the amount of benefit 
payments.  A Pol/Econ local staff member contacted a Ministry of 
Social Welfare official and learned that the traditional one-time 
maternity grant paid to a mother for the birth of her first and 
second child increased from 100 manat ($35) to 130 manat ($46); from 
200 manat ($70) to 250 manat ($88) for a third child; and from 400 
manat ($141) to 500 manat ($176) for a fourth child.  The monthly 
child care allowance increased from 55 manat ($19) to 65 manat 
($23). 
 
¶4.  (U)  After the new year, President Berdimuhamedov publicly 
called for a baby boom in Turkmenistan and promised to enhance 
government assistance to families with young children.  "We are 
allocating 230 million manat ($81 million) to increase child care 
benefits," Berdimuhamedov said during the opening session of 
Turkmenistan's new parliament on January 9.  "We must develop and 
provide a system of privileges for the protection of motherhood and 
childhood, and encourage women to have three, four, five and more 
children," he said.  "A mother who cares for a child under three 
years of age must want for nothing," he declared. 
 
WITH EIGHT BABIES YOU GET AN AWARD... 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The government took some initial steps last year to try 
to improve the birth rate last year.  On March 5, 2008 President 
Berdimuhamedov announced a new award called "Ene Mahri" or "Mother's 
Tenderness", to be bestowed upon Turkmen women who give birth to and 
raise eight or more children.  The award gives a mother 1,000 manat 
or $352 on the first birthday of her eighth child, provided that the 
previous seven children are alive.  In addition to the monetary 
award, the Ene Mahri title comes with some fringe benefits, 
including free utilities, public transport, and free dental care. 
(NOTE:  The latter is thought to have been added by President 
Berdimuhamedov due to his professional experience as a dentist.  END 
NOTE.)  However, local residents think it will take more than 
special awards and the relatively small social package the 
government is offering to persuade families to have so many 
children. 
 
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH REVEALS A DECLINING POPULATION 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Accurate, recent demographic statistics, like any other 
statistic, are secret in Turkmenistan.  In 2003, the national 
statistics agency reported that the population had reached 6.2 
million, an increase of 5.2 percent from the previous year.  In 
2006, however, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) estimated 
 
ASHGABAT 00000330  002 OF 003 
 
 
the population of Turkmenistan was 5,051,000.  The UNFP demographic 
report indicated that in 1995 the fertility rate was 3.7 births per 
woman, a decline of 1.5 births per woman since 1979.  According to 
the World Population Data Factsheet, in 2008 the fertility rate in 
Turkmenistan had dropped to 2.9 births per woman.  Local residents 
noted that the drastic decline was obvious.  An elementary 
schoolteacher from Ashgabat, for example, said that in 2007 her 
school had difficulty filling the slots for first graders, and the 
school ultimately shifted from three classes of first graders to two 
classes.  A local military recruitment officer said that his office 
was unable to meet a 2008 recruitment quota because of the declining 
number of draftees available. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Independent research published in 2006 on the Communist 
Party opposition website tm-iskra.org suggested that the country was 
undergoing a major demographic shift due to its high death rate and 
low birthrate.  The research claimed that beginning in 1992 the 
birthrate in Turkmenistan had begun a pattern of consistent decline 
and by 1999 reached zero population growth.  The research further 
claimed that with zero growth and a continued high mortality rate, 
by 2005 the population had declined by 3 percent, and the population 
was estimated to be 3,721,000 by January 2006.  To provide context 
to the high death rate, a local Pol/Econ staff member confirmed that 
within a six-month period last year, seven people died just in her 
neighborhood, due to illness.  A Pol/Econ staff member's neighbor, 
who works for the Ashgabat funeral office, said that the number of 
people who died in 2008 was twice that of previous years. 
 
HEALTHCARE CORRUPTION HURTS PRE-NATAL PROSPECTS 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Pol/Econ staffer's female acquaintances told her that 
fees and bribes required for decent medical treatment keep young 
families away from regular healthcare.  To get qualified obstetrical 
care, pregnant women have to pay a bribe along with the regular fee. 
 Normally, women pay up to $300 for a qualified doctor to assist 
with childbirth.  Often, obstetricians try to persuade pregnant 
women to have caesarian sections, simply because the operation is 
expensive and they can earn more money that way, report local staff. 
 Corruption in the public health system is rampant.  Local staff 
note that in 2006, residents of a village in eastern Turkmenistan 
were shocked by the story of a young husband who stabbed a doctor 
who refused to treat his pregnant wife until he paid $200.   While 
the husband was retrieving the money, his wife died of preventable 
causes. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Due to the costs, some women in poor rural families have 
their babies at home, increasing the risks for both mother and 
child.  Families with multiple children often face malnutrition and 
other health problems.  According to the World Health Organization's 
2008 research, the infant mortality rate in Turkmenistan stood at 
51.81 per 1,000 births, which puts Turkmenistan next to Cambodia and 
Afghanistan.  A contact who works in the public health system told 
local staff that if the government wants to encourage women to have 
more children, it should offer a sound social package, to include 
adequate financial aid, based on the market costs and inflation 
rates, and free medical care for mothers and children.  An Ashgabat 
schoolteacher said that the government should introduce a benefit 
package to help mothers of large families and also single mothers, 
including free meals for school-aged children.  The present benefits 
package, even with the recent increase in financial benefits is far 
from being enough to stimulate the birthrate, according to local 
staff. 
 
TURKMEN FAMILIES SUPPORT FAMILY PLANNING 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  In present-day Turkmenistan, where unemployment and drug 
addiction are so prevalent, many women are the only breadwinners in 
the family.  They must work full time, usually away from their 
homes.  In order to feed their families, many young Turkmen women 
engage in shuttle trading from Iran, Turkey and China.  Other women, 
especially in Turkmenistan's provinces, go to Turkey to work as 
babysitters or house cleaners.  Women like these cannot go on 
 
ASHGABAT 00000330  003 OF 003 
 
 
maternity leave because they must provide for their dependants. 
Female government employees, as well, are unlikely to have more 
children because the government's maternity allowances do not 
compensate for the loss of their salaries.  Even families with 
adequate incomes often employ family planning due to fears of 
financial instability and the lack of prospects for their children. 
In a traditional Turkmen family, having many children was always 
something for the head of the family to be proud of.  Today, Turkmen 
men strongly support family planning because of the cost of raising 
multiple children.  On the other hand, local staff report that a 
rumor has begun circulating that the Health Ministry, as a way of 
heeding the president's call for a baby boom, instructed 
gynecologists at polyclinics to discourage young Turkmen females 
from using birth control.  A Pol/Econ staffer's health system 
contact said that if true, such a policy would still do little to 
raise the birthrate, but would create another opportunity for health 
workers to demand bribes to provide women with birth control. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  The president's call for more babies is 
unlikely to find support among Turkmen women.  Social factors like 
unemployment, financial insecurity and lack of prospects for 
children make Turkmen couples think twice before having additional 
children.  The demographic slide would be stopped most effectively 
if the government infused the country's largely broken health care 
system with well-trained and well-paid professionals, made health 
care more accessible for people at all socio-economic levels, and 
made a serious effort to combat corruption.  Short of these 
measures, the slide is unlikely to slow.  END COMMENT. 
 
MILES