According to the National Statistical Committee, every fifth citizen of Kyrgyzstan lives below the official poverty line. About 1.8 million Kyrgyzstanis could lose their jobs due to coronavirus. They could join the ranks of the poor in the country.
We decided to figure out who is closest to poverty in Kyrgyzstan. To do this, we counted «free money» of Kyrgyzstanis in plov portions.
It turned out that opinions about budget-friendly rice in the south of the country and meat in Naryn are just food myths: the most affordable portion of plov is in Pokrovka village, and the most expensive — in Osh and Kara-Suu.
It emerged that, on average, a Kyrgyzstani can afford less than one portion of plof per day for his or her free income.
At the same time, the amount of plov that a citizen of Kyrgyzstan can cook at the expense of free income is only one fifth of the norm.
A simple comparison of affordability of a portion of plov in the country shows that poverty in Kyrgyzstan is much wider than the official statistics says.
Full version of the material in Russian «Как порция плова показала истинный размер бедности в Кыргызстане» is available at the link.
Data Editors: Anastasia Valeeva, Aizada Toma.
Illustrations: by Nadezhda Khabichevskaya
The material was created by fellows of data journalism program of Media-K project Internews in Kyrgyzstan, implemented with the support of USAID in the Kyrgyz Republic in partnership with the World Bank, DFID and IDEM. The program’s mentor is Anastasia Valeeva. The opinions and conclusions in the material do not necessarily reflect the views of Internews and its partners.
