Children are prepared for birth – Economics – Kommersant

Until April 15, 2023, the government will formulate additional measures to support the birth rate, as well as determine targeted recommendations for each of the regions of the Russian Federation in this area. This was announced yesterday at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. According to her, before that, the government will carry out extensive research work. At the first stage, by December 25 this year, the Ministry of Labor will prepare the so-called “portrait of a woman who wants to have a baby” for Russia as a whole and for the constituent entities of the Russian Federation – it will be compiled on the basis of data from the All-Russian Population Census, information that is entered in medical birth certificates, and public polls. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, “at the second stage – by February 28 – the portrait will be supplemented with the results of pilot studies aimed at determining the impact of individual support measures on a woman’s desire to have children.” At the third, before April 15, “targeted recommendations will be formed for all subjects of the Russian Federation aimed at increasing the birth rate, and an additional set of measures to support the birth rate will be developed,” said Tatyana Golikova.

Recall that in the first six months of 2022, the birth rate decreased in annual terms by 6.3%, according to Rosstat data. This, as previously reported by the government, is due to a decrease in the number of women of reproductive age – over the past ten years it has fallen by 4.5 million and now stands at 7.5 million. At the same time, the total fertility rate is 1.51, while for reproduction of the population, it must be at least 2.

At the same time, as Kommersant wrote earlier, the practical experience of various countries in terms of a targeted policy to increase the birth rate does not always allow us to identify a set of specific tools that are easy to implement with the help of government organizations (for more details, see Kommersant from August 30), in addition, most of them, which have at least some recorded proven effect, have already been launched in the Russian Federation. Among them are the construction of kindergartens, and the payment of maternity capital, and the creation of labor market regulation, which allows mothers with children to take competitive jobs.

Anastasia Manuylova