In Russia, more than a quarter (26%) of children under the age of 18 live in families with a level of monetary income below the subsistence level. This is evidenced by the data of statistical monitoring of poverty for 2017 presented by Rosstat. This is the only study that publishes official data on the level and profile of poverty among children in Russia, writes RBC.
Child poverty rose sharply in 2015 to 27.4% (up from 20.7% in 2014). After that, the share of children growing up in low-income families began to gradually decline, but in general, the level of poverty among children is twice the poverty rate in the country as a whole. In 2017, 13.2% of the Russian population lived below the poverty line (19.4 million people), in 2018 - 12.9% of the population (18.9 million people). The problem of child poverty is especially acute in rural areas. At the end of 2017, 45% of children living in the countryside grew up in low-income families.
The highest poverty rate - 52.2% - is observed among children who live in large families. Tatiana Maleva, director of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, explained that all households that had monetary incomes close to the subsistence minimum fall below this line at the birth of children.
According to Maleva, it is child poverty that forms the "poverty trap": children growing up in poor families do not receive a decent education, full-fledged medical care and social services, and as a result, they become outsiders in the labor market and cannot claim a high pension. In addition, compared with other categories of the population, children are much more likely to experience deprivation related to economic hardships.
According to RANEPA, 20.9% of Russian children under the age of 17 live in families with debts for housing services, rent or loans, while the same indicator for the entire population is 14%. And 11.7% of children cannot fully eat meat, chicken, fish or their vegetarian equivalents at least every other day.
Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Labor Maxim Topilin said that in the fight against poverty, the authorities should focus on supporting families with two or more children: they make up about 80% of families who are now below the poverty line. However, a closed poll by the FSO showed that more than 40% of Russians did not notice an increase in state aid to families with children. And data from other polls show that 75% of Russians do not have enough money to live from paycheck to paycheck.