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Research Programs / Projects

Targeted Social Policy towards People with Disabilities: Perspectives and Directions of the Reform

Head — Cand.Sc. T.M. Maleva

Duration: September 2003 - February 2004

Support: grant from the Moscow Public Science Foundation

Project Participants: Sergei Vassin, Alina Pishniak, Cand.Sc. Oksana Sinyavskaya, Elena Shatalova

Statement of the problem

On the basis of its socio-economic priorities, each state develops its social and economic policy towards people with disabilities. However, for a society to control for and try to solve the problem of disablement, it is necessary not only to be well aware of the problem but also to have the economic resources. During the last decade, the number of the disabled in Russia has doubled and now amounts to 11 mln people (7.5% of the total population). It is quite evident that such a scale and the trends lead to serious difficulties with financial provision of the policy towards the disabled. The proposed research is aimed at a systemic inter-disciplinary analysis of the problem of disablement and the disabled themselves. This implies a study of the sociological, demographic, and medical aspects of the problem, and would allow to come to a better understanding of the structure of this social group and to develop an address social policy towards its various subgroups depending of the specifics of their social and economic situation and opportunities.

Reseach objectives:

1. To assess the amount of state social obligations towards the disabled provided they are observed to the full and unconditionally; to analyze the effectiveness of the current social policy towards the disabled.
2. To perform a demographic analysis of the disablement rates and the causes of disabilities.
3. To assess the effectiveness and actual results of social policy towards the individual, and the social and economic conditions of his/her household.
4. To identify social groups of the disabled on the basis of a set of criteria (medical, demographic, labor, household-related, etc.) and to formulate the principles of the differentiation of social policy towards various groups.

New Insights in the Analytical Work and Their Connection with the Previous Research in the Area

The overwhelming majority of Russian academic literature on the problem of disablement deals with medical issues of the causes, degrees, and consequences of the disability. The only book devoted to social policy towards the disabled was published in 1999 by the Bureau for Economic Analysis Fund [Maleva, T., Vasin, S., Golodets, O., and S. Besfamilnaya. The Disabled People in Russia: Causes and Dynamic of the Disablement, Contradictions and Perspectives of Social Policy // Bureau for Economic Analysis. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1999]. No other paper that would develop the complex topic of social policy towards the disabled has appeared so far. On the basis of the results and experience of our previous project conducted 5 years ago, we seek to develop a conception of address social policy towards the disabled in modern Russia, using a new methodology and the empirical data available.

Further Development of the Project

The results of the project would make the core of a collective monograph. We suppose that the methodology of transition to the address social policy elaborated on the example of such a complex and heterogeneous group as the disabled could be implemented in other IISP projects and applied to other socially disadvantaged groups.

Expected Results and the Their Dissemination

Besides the monograph, we would prepare analytical papers for the ministries and departments concerned, publish articles in academic journals, and organize a final seminar.

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