“Population policy does not work”: 71.6% of Russian women do not want to have large families

Compared to 2017, almost the same proportion of women surveyed, about 48%, were in favor of giving birth to two children. But the percentage of those wishing to give birth and raise a single child has increased: from 17% to 23% in 2022. The number of women who would like to give birth to three or more children, that is, to become large families, has decreased by several points. 2.4% of Russian women would not want to become mothers at all.

It seems that the authorities are trying to solve the demographic issue by various measures of social and financial support for families with children, especially those with many children, but despite this, one, maximum two children remain the preferred number for the vast majority of couples. Why these measures do not work, we figured out together with experts.

The founder of the National Parents’ Committee, the children’s ombudsman in the Republic of Tatarstan, Irina Volynets, who herself is the mother of four children, shared her thoughts on why the measures introduced have not yet had the desired effect.

“Now the number of divorces is astonishing; in Tatarstan, for example, there are 19.5% more divorces in January of this year than in January of the previous year. And this fact also affects the birth rate, the quality of life of children who stay with one of the parents, – says Irina Volynets. – Many, unfortunately, succumb to these “provocations” – to live for themselves, for their own sake, to put their personal interests in the first place – all this leads to a decrease in the birth rate. After all, it’s not just about the financial side of the issue.

Since 2019, our support measures for families with children have almost tripled, and there is still a birthrate crisis. If we compare, for example, with European countries, then we spend 1.8% of GDP on these measures, while they spend 3.5% of GDP, almost twice as much. But despite these figures, they are also experiencing a fertility crisis.

According to the children’s ombudsman, this suggests that the issue of fertility is rather “not material, but ideological.”

“Until the family and children become our main value, we will financially support such families as much as we like, but there will be no sense in this,” the children’s ombudsman believes. – Therefore, I fully advocate indirect support measures: not to give money to parents in their hands, but to provide free education, free clubs and sections, medical care at a decent level so that you do not have to use paid services so often …

That is, there should be comprehensive support from the state, in which parents will be confident that they will be able to adequately raise a child who will have a decent childhood. Such indirect support measures exclude abuses and allow maintaining social justice. If everything is absolutely free for children, even, for example, sports equipment and uniforms, if a child goes in for sports, then we will start giving birth.

As for the mother’s capital, according to Volynets, “let there be a minimum payment for the first child, because the first child will be born anyway, but this amount should grow in progress for each subsequent child, then it will stimulate large families.”

If we talk about the mental component, then here it is necessary “to revise our state policy specifically in terms of the cultural order” so that it is aimed at popularizing family values. “We have talented directors, screenwriters, writers, they can create very cool works based on which films and series will be made, they will become cult, and everyone will want to imitate the heroes of these series. That is, they will focus in their lives not on some bandits and dubious personalities, but on a healthy, strong, happy family with many children,” Volynets is convinced.

The well-known demographer Yuri Krupnov, who has repeatedly voiced on the pages of MK how to raise the birth rate, spoke as follows:

– Rosstat statistics show that the state has not yet begun to seriously engage in demography. We see a trend towards a decrease in the number of children per woman on average.

The wishes of the women interviewed, which usually exceed what is obtained in reality, show that we are “creeping” from a 1.5-child family (on average per woman) towards a 1.3-1.4-child family. This means that the demographic policy in our country does not work. And in order to at least achieve simple demographic reproduction, we need to move from our 1.5-child family in the opposite direction, to a 2.5-child family, and for this, half of all Russian families must have three or more children.

In fact, a “demographic revolution” should take place, which the state should stimulate.

I will list the main steps. First: to clearly set a strategic goal for at least 20 years – a “demographic twenty-year period”. Secondly, in order to make the transition from a 1.5- to 2.5-child family, it is urgent to adopt an appropriate law on the status of a large family, which will allow raising a large family to the level of a national idea.

Thirdly, it is necessary to sharply intensify the basic living conditions for families with three or more children, first of all, to stake in housing policy on the “house + apartment” model for such families.

Fourth, in order to translate all this into the correct political format, next year should be declared the Year of Large Families. And of course, in my opinion, it is necessary to make demographics and the issue of large families the core of the agenda of the upcoming presidential elections.

… Just the other day, the State Duma proposed another measure, which, however, many social activists considered absurd, calling nothing less than “trafficking in children.” “Give birth and give” is called. In this way, the authorities plan to fight abortion. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children Tatyana Butskaya put forward the idea of ​​prenatal adoption. This is when adoptive parents for a child are found at the stage when he is still in the womb of a biological mother.

Of course, there are pitfalls, say those who supported this idea, but there are undoubted pluses too. “If an unwanted child immediately ends up in a foster family, and not in a boarding school or orphanage, that’s fine,” public activists say. “For teenage pregnancies, this is a great option. As well as for many couples who cannot conceive on their own. But this issue requires detailed study.

We also listened to the “voice of the people” – mother of three children Svetlana Nurgalina from Perm. She named five main factors that prevent a family from becoming a large family.

The woman, firstly, agrees with Irina Volynets that it is necessary to educate children: “If you can still find free circles for schoolchildren, then everything is paid for preschoolers: both sports and developmental games.”

The second is recreation: “It is family vacations that are of interest, and not children’s camps, where children are under the supervision of strangers. Tickets for a plane or a train for five back and forth is an unaffordable amount. We are traveling by car. But if a fourth child appears, then this type of recreation will not be available to us, since we have a 5-seater ordinary car,” says Svetlana.

Third: to give children decent medical care, and it would be good to include some paid services, for example, physiotherapy, in the compulsory medical insurance policy. The fourth thing Yury Krupnov is talking about is the issue of housing. “It is desirable to have your own house, since it is not an option for a large family to live in an apartment.”

And the fifth, most important, according to Svetlana, is the need to overcome the prestige of a large family. “They automatically fall into the disadvantaged zone,” my mother believes.