“This state conducts experiments on the elderly” (video)
Life has turned into precise arithmetic for 79-year-old Raya Harutyunyan; she lives with precise calculations not allowing herself to spend more than AMD 1000 daily. “I divide my AMD 35 000 pension between 30 days of a month and try to spend 1000 drams a day; there are days when I don’t spend even that amount. Sometimes it seems to me that this state conducts experiments on the elderly to know whether they will bear up or not… Our 35 000 pension isn’t equal to even the amount they spend in an hour, can they live with it? It is humiliating, they neglect and ignore us,” says lonely pensioner Raya Harutyunyan, who lives in Etchmiadzin. She lives with soviet “good” memories, tells about her rich career and adds that at that time life was different; they lived better. “I worked five years at the factory of carpets, then I moved to construction sphere. I worked as a workman at Etchmiadzin’s N2 Construction department for 20 years. You know, how strong I was and how I worked. We worked with concrete, plaster, lifted stones; it was man’s work, and I got 100 rubles salary. When I grew older, I couldn’t do it anymore and I moved to work at the intensive care unit of Etchmiadzin hospital as a hospital attendant. I worked by a shift, I got 80 rubles salary, and I worked here for 15 years,” recalls Raya Harutyunyan. During the years of working at the construction, she received one-room flat in 1974 by housing improvement project. Until today she continues to live lonely in that flat. She didn’t marry and doesn’t have children. “For those, who are lonely, living on those pennies given by the state is very difficult. First, my pension was AMD 20 000, once it was increased by AMD 7000, it was good, and then by AMD 5000; last year it wasn’t increased. Every year I expect that it will be increased. I can remember that a few years ago, Serzh Sargsyan announced that in 2012 the minimum pension would be AMD 40 000, and we lived with that hope, and until now we haven’t reached that AMD 40 000,” says Raya Harutyunyan. She tells that she suffers from hypertension, she has had heart attack for three times, she takes different pills a day and spends much money on medicine. “I save on medicine, I don’t buy, and as a result I start feeling bad, but if my pension was higher, I would freely spend it on medicine. When I receive my pension, I go to pharmacy and buy medicine worth AMD 5000, then I go to a shop to buy vermicelli, rice and oil so that I can live on them for the whole month. Many people borrow from the stores and then pay when they get pension, but I stretch my legs according to my coverlet. My left eye has lost its sight, but where can I go or whom can I apply to without money? I worked for 40 years for this state and at present I am in this situation,” says Raya Harutyunyan anxiously. She again counts her AMD 35 000 pension and explains that every month she pays AMD 1500 for electricity ( more in winter, AMD 2500-3000), she saves on water spending on it AMD 500, AMD 5000 on the medicine and the rest is spent on food.” “I hardly ever buy meat; only sometimes I buy minced meat or chicken from a store, that’s all. A pensioner should get at least AMD 60000 in order to live, we don’t live, I just survive, as I am an old bone of Soviet, that’s why I bear. In the past I ate and drank well, we wouldn’t cook a dish without meat, I used to go to sanatoriums, seaside…” she says. For already a few months, Raya Harutyunyan has moved to live with the family of her nephew; she says she couldn’t live alone anymore “I have many health problems, I was so helpless, they made my come here; they are also a big family, I didn’t want to bother them, but I am thankful that they take care of me, or else I wouldn’t be alive with my AMD 35 000 pension,” says Raya Harutyunyan anxiously. According to the RA Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, at present there are 456 960 pensioners in Armenia, for whom AMD 223 billion 769.5 million is allocated from 2016 budget. 458 497 pensioners were registered in 2016, for whom AMD 225 billion 626.9 was allocated.
