Nearly a dozen regions Russia are preparing to offer cash payment to young women giving birth, Russian media report, but there is a big problem.
According to the Moscow Times, monetary incentives for childbirth will be offered in at least 11 Russian regions and will come into effect on January 1, 2025. If a young woman successfully carries her child to term, she will receive 100,000 rubles, or approximately CA$1,300.
The bonuses, which were first announced this summer in a handful of regions, are subject to strict criteria. Although it varies by region, all require expectant mothers to be a full-time student at a local college or university. In addition, they must be under 25 years old at the time of delivery.
Eligibility is also waived if the mother fails to carry the child to term, meaning a stillborn baby would prevent the woman from receiving a benefit.
Last month, Russia’s lower house of parliament voted unanimously to ban what authorities consider dangerous propaganda for a child-free lifestylein hopes of boosting a declining birth rate, Reuters reports.
Official data released in September places Russia the birth rate at its lowest in a quarter of a century as death rates rise Moscow’s war in Ukraine rages and a wartime exodus sees citizens heading abroad. The Kremlin called the figures “catastrophic for the future of the nation.”
President Vladimir Putin said three-child families should become the norm in Russia to secure the country’s future.
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THE ban on propaganda without children also includes any content considered to promote “non-traditional lifestyles” such as same-sex relationships or gender fluidity, as well as dissident narratives about the conflict in Ukraine. Violators face heavy fines.
“We are talking about protecting citizens, first of all the younger generation, from information disseminated in the media space that has a negative impact on the formation of people’s personalities,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the chamber, said in November bass and ally of Putin. after the ban was announced.
“Everything must be done so that the new generations of our citizens grow up focused on traditional family values.”
In recent months, Russian lawmakers have made sweeping, panicked changes to health policy, while offering new financial incentives, in an effort to correct the low birth rate.
The government has proposed using public funds to pay for newlyweds’ wedding nights in hotels, in the hope that they will conceive, as well as encouraging women to use their work breaks to have relationships sexual activity with the intention of becoming pregnant.
A regional health minister, Yevgeny Shestopalov, told Russian television in September that women should “procreate during their breaks.”
According to Newsweek, he added: “Being very busy at work is not a valid reason but a lame excuse. You can participate in procreation during breaksbecause life goes by too quickly.
And last year, Newsweek also reports, a member of Russia’s lower house suggested that prisoners are released to procreatein the hopes of increasing the country’s birth rate, and having their sentences canceled if they manage to have a child.
The country’s health authorities also announced extension to fertility testssome women in Moscow reporting receiving unsolicited referrals to screening clinics.
Russia is not the only country struggling with a low birth rate. According to a Statistics Canada report released in September, the fertility rate in Canada in 2023 was 1.26 children per woman, which represents the lowest level recorded since the agency began collecting data.
A StatCan report released in January said Canada, like other countries, is facing a fertility “pandemic roller coaster,” with a growing number of families postponing the birth of children.
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