“We know what will happen if we make a mistake in front of the ruling party” — how socially vulnerable people are used in Adjara

 

02.07.2024

 

About 40,000 socially vulnerable people are employed throughout Georgia. Their average salary is 300 lari per month. In many cases, the responsibilities of the employed indicate that their form of employment is only a formality. For example, in the Adjara highland municipality of Keda, two men clean a water tank, and in a neighbouring village a woman cleans a room that they have set up in the centre of the village. The boys gathered there are playing cards.

 

‘It’s my duty. You can’t leave rubbish next to a litter bin,’ said socially vulnerable Malkhaz Chanidze about his work. He is from a village in the Khelvachauri municipality of Adjara. He, like the others, is employed under the state employment programme.

 

The editorial team at Batumelebi are with four socially vulnerable people in the villages of Jocho and Kirnati in the municipality of Khelvachauri. An employee from Jocho told Batumelebi that he cleans waiting rooms despite public transport not being used in most of the village for many years.

 

‘It seems Georgian Dream [billionaire B. Ivanishvili’s party] is using us,” Ineza Golijashvili exclaims. Ineza Golijashvili considers it unjust that the employment programme will end after the elections, in the spring of 2025.

 

A socially vulnerable respondent living in the village of Kvatia in the Khulo municipality believes that he was “punished” because of his critical attitude towards the authorities. His contract was terminated, despite the fact that his health was damaged during the execution of the work.

 

‘When you turn near the bridge, there are litter bins… There are about 13 litter bins in the village. Litter should not be left next to a bin, if I find something, then I throw it in the bin. The bin lorry arrives three times, twice or once a week, so I don’t need to empty the bins. I work until 12 o’clock at night, sometimes up to one o’clock, even up to three,’ Malkhaz Chanidze explains to Babtumelebi what he has to do every morning.

 

Who tidied up the litter bins before Malkhaz Chanidze got the job in the village of Jocho?

 

‘There was no one, it was a problem, rubbish was scattered everywhere,’ Malkhaz Chanidze says, confirming that he participated in a rally in Tbilisi in support of Georgian Dream and, consequently, the Russia law.

 

‘Was it your wish or were you asked?’ Batumelebi ask him.

 

“I was at the rally in Tbilisi. I was asked. What do I want, why did I go? It doesn’t matter if I want it or not, it was my wish,” Malkhaz Chanidze replied shortly.

 

He ruled out participating in violent action and added that nothing would change for him, the country would become closer to Russia if it remained an ally of the United States.

 

Ineza Golijashvili, who was employed during the pre-election period from the village of Jocho, says that she was not at the Georgian Dream rally and that she is against the “Russia law”. However, she does not exclude support for the Georgian Dream.

 

‘They leave us no choice, we have to [support them]…,’ Ineza agrees to audio recording, but not to video recording.

 

Ineza Golijashvili lives in extreme poverty with her husband and five children, one of the children has a disability. Ineza’s family, consisting of nine people, survives at the expense of state benefits and her mother’s pension. The whole village have been experiencing a problem with water for 20 years as they take water from a spring.

 

How is she feeling about becoming unemployed again in the spring of 2025?

 

‘People are looking for a solution to not stay hungry. Even if these 300 lari (this is the basic minimum) are taken away, what will remain? It appears that we have to depend on them [the Georgian dream].

 

I didn’t attend the ‘dream’ rally in Tbilisi on April 29, I wasn’t even asked to go. I wouldn’t have gone anyway; I don’t have to. I am a free citizen; I have my own opinion. I know that many villagers were told to.

 

There must be justice. If you allow me to eat bread and drink water, it does not mean that I should agree to go to the pro-government rally of the ‘dream’. It’s not fair to force people to do this,’ Ineza Golijashvili told Batumelebi, adding that she opposes the law on foreign agents in Georgia.

 

Georgian citizens in the villages confirmed that some of the villagers without social security and who worked as labourers were left unemployed.

 

The now unemployed had previously worked on repairing roads and squares. The local authorities had told them that ‘they should stop working for several months’. These people are waiting for employment again before the elections and decided to remain silent in a conversation with Batumelebi.

 

‘I was employed by the manager [a government official], he offered me employment,’ says Fati Jihadze.

 

‘This state programme is beneficial to me, everything is fine at home, I have no expenses, there’s no lunch break at work, 300 lari suits me,’ says Fati.

 

Fati confirmed that the ‘village manager’ also advised her to go to the ‘dream’ rally, but she was not able to. During the interview, it is clear how much the employee feels obliged to the ruling political party, which hired her before the elections at the expense of the budget.

 

‘Now almost all of the family in the village have a job’. Fati Jihadze emphasises this and does not want to talk about the future. For example, what will happen after the elections when this programme stops, and when she will no longer be able to receive these 300 lari, and Georgia may end up in the hands of Russia. Yes, she has never been a facilitator of the ruling Dream, but if anything, she will help the party. ‘If I can help the Georgian Dream, I will help if I see the need for it.’

 

She does not care that this programme is funded from the Georgian budget, and not from the treasury of billionaire B. Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream.

 

‘We’ve been working for 2 years, but we didn’t work before,’ Fati Jihadze tells us and, before saying goodbye, emphasises that she also wishes for a European future for the country.

 

‘Why would they cancel visa-free travel with Europe? As far as I know, they won’t cancel it…’, she looks away.

 

Nestan Shushanidze, from the village of Kirnati, cleans the courtyard of a public school.

 

“They [the government] shouldn’t play with human rights, they shouldn’t abuse them,’ Nestan avoids criticising the Georgian Dream, but objects to the termination of the unemployment programme after the elections.

 

She was told to go to a rally in support of the Georgian Dream, but she was waiting for her grandson and thus justified herself to the local authorities. But it is discussed that she wanted to go to the ‘dream’ rally in Tbilisi on April 29.

 

‘So maybe I would help our government… I would help so that there would be such a job in the future.’

 

Nestan Shushanidze says that her daughter’s family were living in Ukraine when the bombing of Odesa began.

 

‘Now she lives in Germany as a refugee, with her husband and two children. They were afraid when the bombs fell. The parents of these boys were still in Odesa two months ago, when the kindergarten and bakery were blown up. I was scared, there was one who loved the bakery, but he survived’.

 

In answer to the question, do you see a problem in rapprochement with Russia,

Nestan replies that, in her opinion this is a problem. We also asked about the termination of the employment programme after the election:

 

‘We should not play with human rights; we should not abuse them. The authorities should give the population a reason to support them, they should give people more opportunities to live. Do you understand that people live in ‘trash’? We, Georgia, should not fall into such tragedy.’

 

 

What is written in Georgian law?

Illegal campaigning, as well as the use of administrative resources or forced involvement of voters in campaigning activities, if confirmed, entail fines during the election period.

 

Source: https://ru.netgazeti.ge/61932/