Anastasia Savinykh
The Government's financial aid to Russian mothers bore tangible fruit this year. By the end of the year 1.7 million babies will be born in Russia, the birth rate is up 10%, the Social Insurance Fund announced yesterday. One contributing factor was last year's introduction of a programme of maternity certificates and the allocation of "mother's capital" at the birth of a second child.
Financial market problems should not affect the birth rate dynamics in the country. This was the objective Prime Minister Vladimir Putin set for the Minister of Health and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, yesterday. The Minister had some good news for the Premier.
Birth rate is intimately connected with people's well-being. The last time Russian mothers showed similar results was in the 1980s when the Government offered them a guaranteed maternity leave, free baby food and other benefits.
In 1991, 1.8 million babies were born. But then came a decline which some evil tongues dubbed "the Russian cross". The cross appeared when the mortality curve intersected with the birth curve and the country's population began to shrink. Russia faced ethnic extinction, so the Government's latest measures are timely and vital.
The birth rate began to rise in 2007 when families were again offered some guarantees. 94% of all young mothers gladly availed themselves of the maternity certificates programme. Maternal capital also went a long way to stimulate the birth rate. Tatyana Golikova gladly reported to Vladimir Putin yesterday that the number of families which decided to have three or more children had risen by almost 2% in the last few months.
"The birth rate is rising. The Rosstat data for nine months are not in yet, but because we have introduced maternity certificates, we expect that the birth rate will be 1,270,000 in nine months of 2008, that is up 8% over last year, she said. At this rate we will have a little more than 1.7 million births by the end of 2008.
Putin listened to the report and praised the Minister while urging her to concentrate on fulfilling all the Government commitments to Russian women. The Prime Minister warned that using the crisis as an excuse for not coping was not an option.
"I am referring to maternity certificates," Mr Putin explained. Assistance to women in bringing up their children in the first 18 months, allowances to children under three; and mothers' capital, adjusted for inflation, should be allocated in the agreed upon amounts. We have every opportunity to accomplish this in spite of any financial crises."
That was a timely reminder because upheavals, including economic ones, immediately cause people to revise their family-building plans.
Moreover, now that the birth rate is finally growing, the Government will face new problems. Most kindergartens were shut down in the 1990s, vocational technical education is in decline. Parents think not only about pampers, but about putting their offspring on their feet. These improvements would require new decisions fusing Government money, so this should moderate our joy. Besides, two children per family would not prevent Russia from aging or from extinction. The problem requires three or four children per family. So far, not many families will do it. Hopefully, Mrs Golikova will manage to generate more heroism in our ranks...
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A hundred girls for a hundred and five boys
According to statistics, more boys are born than girls. The ratio is usually 105 to 100. But more women than men survive into old age, especially in this country. Russia is 136th in terms of male life expectancy and 91st in terms of female life expectancy. Scientists note the huge gap (9-15 years depending on the region) between the average age of men and women in Russia. While a Russian male lives 15 years less than a European one, the average age of a Russian woman is comparable to that in the East European countries, though not the more developed countries.
Also, women remain able-bodied and in good health much longer than the stronger gender. According to the World Bank, women account for 17% of drug addicts, 20% of alcoholics and 25% of people with tuberculosis.
