Page 68 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

68 I Eurasia bne November 2021
The herder's income is seasonal.
the steppes. “They are looking far more into the future, and want to be able to count and control their own financial conditions.” If they continue herding, their income will be extremely variable and uncertain.
The herder’s income is seasonal. Families with a majority of male goats have consistent income from April to June, selling goat fur. If the majority are female goats, then from May 10 onwards they start selling the fur. During April to June, they are happy and have steady income. Then through June, July, and August, they have very little income. In September, they can start selling sheep fur.
There is fresh meat available in the summer, but the price is high. During Mongolia’s largest holiday, Naadam, the price of meat skyrockets. Towards September, parents need money to pay school fees for young children and university tuition for their older children. So, the herders begin selling meat. But because so much meat hits the market at the same time, the price plummets, remaining low till about November.
In November and December, city people begin purchasing whole, slaughtered animals, to have enough meat to last all winter. A baby lamb, born in the spring, sells for about 50,000 tughrik. If the herder cares for it, feeds it, and fattens it up, it could fetch 220,000 tughrik
at slaughter time, in the autumn.
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In January, demand drops. It picks
up again in February, when families celebrate Sagan Tsar, Mongolian New Year. Afterwards, the herders are poor again, until April.
Rather than endure the harsh lifestyle, hard work, and inconsistent income, “young herders easily give up, because there is another option, come to the
city and work and receive a regular income,” says Munkhbat. “Most of
their friends are in the city. Most of the things they want to do are in the city, and they cannot find a marriage partner in the countryside.”
For others, the decision is made by the parents. It is common for herders to send their children to live with a relative in
the steppes, and so the boys in the countryside cannot find a wife.
From families Munkhbat interviewed, “there might be two or three boys of marriage age, but they don’t have wives. So, their best options might be
a divorced woman who is left alone on the steppes. Most girls leave the steppes, get educated and do not return. So,
they are not available for those boys to marry. So, there is a shortage of girls on the steppes. In the whole of Mongolia, there are also more girls in higher education than boys. Nationwide there is a difference in gender, but not that big a difference. But among herders, it is much larger. They want girls to get educated before they get pregnant, but the boys are going to stay behind and take over the herd from the dad.”
Some boys come to the city for education as well. Others may come out of economic necessity, seeking work. “When boys come to the city, it depends on whether they are educated or not,” says Munkhbat. “There is an increasing number of educated herders with university degrees. If they don’t have education, they will be doing manual labour, but with education they can get white collar jobs.” The educated ones can even get a job in the small towns, be in the countryside during the day, and still see after their herds or, split the work with a partner who sees after
the herds most of the time.
“Families with a majority of male goats have consistent income from April to June, selling goat fur”
a town, so that they can attend school. If the parents are not far away, the kids will go home on weekends and help out with the herd. Herding families often send their girls to the city to attend education, but will keep one or more sons behind, to help the father. As a result, there is a gender imbalance on the steppes. The girls who graduate university do not wish to return to
Once the herders come to the city, they have to deal with money, something which they have a very unique relationship with. Sara, a Mongolian teacher who owned eight kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar, says that when she hired teachers from the countryside “they believed that they needed to have a baby before the age of 25, but did
not necessarily believe they needed to