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22 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 2012 younger than 5 years of age; and in 5% of the vi l- lages , there are no young peopl e between the ages of 16 and 35 — that is, there is no one left of repr o- ductive age. In 3,000 villages (10%) there were no births at all. The village demographics are top - heavy with pensioners, and most of these are women. Thus, 9,000 of the 29,000 villages are destined for extinction, designated as deteriora t- ing if they have 50 - 60% pensioners, or dying, if having over 60% pensioners. A recent opinion poll showed that 60% of the villagers believed their village to be stagnating or falling apart. The majori ty of the respondents were worried about unemployment, poverty, a l- coholism, drug abuse, failing health, and lack of infrastructure and services — not the optimistic self - reliant community one would hope to see twenty years after independence. The post Sov iet de - collectivization of Ukraine’s vast agricultural sector progressed slowly. In 1999, the re - registration of collective farms as Collective Agricultural Enterprises was completed, and their members were entitled to shares of the land. The land reform law allowed entrepreneurial souls to convert their land shares into private family farms; and it allowed for the leasing (though not the sale) of land shares to larger agricultural business entities. Surprisingly, many of the former collectives remained in tact, often under the leadership of the former collective farm manager. A new dominant pattern in Ukraine (as elsewhere across the FSU) is that these former collectives have come under the u m- brella of large agro - holding companies that now control large swa thes of Ukraine, creating mega - farms. These impose a different regime of work and logic of profit onto what was once at least partly a social welfare enterprise. Within these developments, cultivation in tensifies, but so does the exploitation of women. The stunning truth is that certain agro - industrial Selling produce at the markets as a survival strategy. sectors would collapse were it not for their co n- tinued exploitation. The intensification of cultiv a- tion also means that fewer people are needed to work. Collective farms that once employed 400 now need less than half that many. Rural une m- ployment in some places has reached 60 - 75%. Over one fourth (26.4%) of Ukraine’s cit i- zens live in poverty , and poverty is almost twice as widespread in the rural areas (36.8%) as in the urban (21.4%) If we follow the UN in defining p o- verty as being more than the insufficiency of wa g- es income, including also the presence of ill health, illiteracy , and bad acces s to social services, then the widespread degradation and deep social isolation of Ukraine’s villages constitutes a n a- tional emergency. Rural residents are left to their own devices in dealing with their poverty. Every 1 , 000 persons employed support anothe r 820 u n- employed or those unable to work. Women shoulder the care of the very young, the elderly , and the infirm. They make a bid for subsistence by selling domestic produce and other goods in the outdoor markets. But not everyone has eith er the access or energy to engage in this activity . MIGRATION AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY Would you want your children to inherit your profession? 90% of rural workers say NO. Since the Soviet 1960s , the low desirability of r u- ral life has been chasing young people out in sear ch of career opportunities. Between 1960 and 1992, almost a third of the villages of the Ukra i- nian SSR disappeared from the map. In 1992 - 93 , there was a sudden reversal of this trend, when, during the first economically uncertain years after independence, people fled the cities in search of a certain foo d supply in the countryside. However, after 1997, rural - urban migration resumed and quickened, especially among the young who , ha v- ing completed their schooling , reject a return to village conditions. Since 1996, the dominant trend is migr a- tion and/or emigration from the rural areas of able - bodied women over 20 years of age , who are searching for alternative sources of income. E x- perts not only speak of a “migration strategy” for success, that is, better care er opportunities, but also recognize Ukrainian migration as a strategy of survival. Estimates are that since 1991, seven million people have e migrated to work abroad, mostly to the Russian Federation, Eastern Europe and several EU countries , including Spai n and Italy. According to various polls, 80% of these migrants affirm their desire to return home, but are unable to predict when that might be. And this Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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