Representatives of a number of NGOs called upon civil society to make common cause with the pensioners as 90% of these live at the poverty line, said the head of the trade union “For Decent Life” Ana Tcaci, who is the president of honor of the Political Party for Moldova’s Union. In this connection, the members of a number of national NGOs of pensioners made a public statement by which they demand an equitable system of pensions for all the categories of pensioners.
According to the statement, which was presented in a news conference at IPN, during 20 years the political parties promised the people a happy life and welfare, but the social system does not meet the people’s needs, especially of the pensioners, who are the most affected ones and became victims of corruption. “Those who worked their whole life are poor now. Each third pensioner is on the verge of poverty. The average old age pension is 1,087 lei, but 90% of the pensioners in Moldova have a pension of under 1,000 lei. On the other hand, the pensions of state functionaries and former judges are 15 times higher,” stated Ana Tcaci.
She also said that the World Bank repeatedly recommended to gradually equalize the privileged pensions with those of the general pension system, but the pensioners realize that in a corrupt country it is almost impossible to ensure social equity and this leads to the widening of the gap between the rich pensioners, who served as functionaries, and the poor pensioners. “In a country where the pension is only a symbol for humiliating the population and where most of the people have no rights and society is affected by anemia, only society can do something to save the pensioners. It’s a shame for the state where nobody cares about the elderly people and were the pension is a symbol for undermining human dignity,” said the leader of the trade union “For Decent Life”.
Ana Tcaci also said that Moldova will become a really civilized country only when the state gains the people’s confidence and when social inequity is removed, while the democratic management mechanisms are used to improve the situation of whole society, including of pensioners. Thus, the task of civil society is to unite and make effort to get rid of the label of the unhappiest people with the largest number of humiliated elderly people and with the richest managers in the poorest state of Europe.
