MOSCOW, December 8. / TASS /. New payments for the birth of the first child before they reach one and a half years will help reduce the number of abortions and significantly improve demographics, experts interviewed by TASS say. However, in their opinion, today there is not enough financial support for families with children from 1.5 to 3 years old.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed introducing, starting in 2018, monthly payments to young families at the birth of their first child before they reach one and a half years. Depending on the region, payments will amount to an average of 10.5 thousand rubles. Experts told the agency what kind of assistance they already provide to parents at the federal level and what more families need.
Help for nonworking mothers
Valery Elizarov, a member of the public council under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, scientific director of the Center for the Study of Population Problems at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, told TASS that at the moment several types of federal support are paid for the birth of a child.
"Women go on postnatal paid leave. Working mothers in this case receive 100% of their salary, but not more than 57,800 rubles. Non-working mothers, or if their work experience is less than 6 months, receive benefits in an amount not exceeding the minimum wage. 7800 rubles ", - said Elizarov.
After the end of the postnatal leave, mothers go on parental leave. "Leave to care for a child lasts until the child reaches one and a half years of age, during this period working mothers receive 40% of their salary, but not more than 23,120 rubles. Nonworking mothers are also entitled to payments - 3,065 rubles for the first child. twice as much, about 6,000 rubles, but for a working mother the amount of payments for the birth of a second child will not change, "he said.
According to the expert, the new allowance proposed by the president can be of help, first of all, for low-income and unemployed mothers who have decided to give birth to their first child. But working parents also need additional support, he said. "In my opinion, it is necessary to more actively support working mothers. The funds could be spent on increasing payments to working mothers up to 50-60% of the salary and increasing tax deductions for children," Elizarov said.
The incentive to become a parent
Experts interviewed by TASS are confident that the new payments will be a good incentive to be parents and will help reduce the number of abortions in the country. "This will really be a stimulus, as once maternal capital became an incentive for the birth of a second child. I hope that this will affect the number of abortions, the birth rate should increase," said Tatyana Solomatina, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Tomsk region.
Arthur Kokayev, Commissioner for Children's Rights under the head of North Ossetia, agrees with the deputy. "We, as well as throughout Russia, are now experiencing a low birth rate. This is due, in particular, to small salaries, which do not always allow young parents to decide on such a step as having a child. I think now the situation will change for the better," - he said.
"The earliest age of a child is the most financially demanding period, and this period clearly the child should be with the mother. Now it will be easier for women to make decisions about having a child, and this will definitely have a positive effect on improving the demographic situation," Volgograd Region Nina Boldyreva.
According to her colleague from the Penza region Elena Stolyarova, the new payments will give an incentive that the maternity capital could not give. "Maternity capital is usually spent on improving housing conditions, and not on weekly or monthly expenses," the agency's interlocutor explained.
Marina Stepkina, deputy director of the Omsk medical center, believes that the introduction of such monthly payments will have a positive effect on the health of children. "Many babies are born with birth injuries, which, if left untreated, will negatively affect the development of the child. The appearance of such subsidies would increase the availability of medical services for young children and avoid many health problems in the future," the expert said.
Motherhood will get younger
Experts believe that the new payments will help solve another problem: families will be ready to have children at an earlier age. According to doctors, parents who decide to have their first child are getting older from year to year.
“Today, first of all, it is necessary to create motivation so that women give birth earlier, so that they give birth to several children. After all, over the past 10-15 years, the average age of birth of the first child has significantly shifted, and today many women prefer to give birth after 25 years, since before that they support for families with children under one and a half years old and provision of places in a nursery should encourage women to give birth as early as possible, "says the children's ombudsman in the Trans-Baikal Territory Ivan Katanaev.
Natalya Tomilova, head of the Civil Registry Office in the Amur Region, also supports him. "Today in the region there is a decrease in the birth rate. Additional payments will help reduce the age of women in childbirth. That is, if now women are mainly giving birth at the age of 25-27, then financial support can reduce this indicator to 20-21 years - the most favorable age for women in childbirth.", she says.
Payments need to be extended
Many parents believe that additional payments are necessary even after the child turns 1.5 years old. Igor Begaev, chairman of the council of the Rostov regional branch of the public organization for the protection of the family "Parent All-Russian Resistance", told TASS that "the most difficult period is the age from one and a half to 4 years, when the child will be ready to go to kindergarten."
"The real availability of nurseries and kindergartens is far from winning stories. This gap becomes especially difficult for single mothers, and even more difficult for those who have several children with a small age difference. During this period of active growth, accordingly, the largest increase in costs occurs. and even if there is a working father in the family, he has the hardest time during this period, "says Begaev.
A young mother from Perm, Anastasia Averkova, agrees with him. "I would, of course, choose a measure of support that would provide benefits from birth to 3 years inclusive. Because after a year and a half, maternity payments stop, and if a mother intends to sit with a child under 3 at home and raise him, then live the family will only have one dad's salary, which is not always enough. And, choosing between an allowance of up to one and a half years and an allowance from one and a half to 3 years, I would choose the second option in order to get at least some opportunity to stay at home with the child and not torment him kindergarten at such an early age, "she says.
Yulia Chernysheva, editor-in-chief of the site for mothers kubimama.ru, from Krasnodar Territory, also complained about the financial insecurity of mothers and noted that because of this, women sometimes even make a choice in favor of work, not children.
“Mothers need to work, children who go to the kindergarten are surrounded by infections. mom tries to get the child back to the garden as soon as possible. A vicious circle, which could be broken by tight control of the condition of children and understanding of the employer, "she said.
Not only payment is needed
At the same time, most experts agree that payments alone are not enough for the growth of demographics, it is also necessary to create infrastructure, open new kindergartens and schools.
"Our family cannot be imagined without children. Traditionally, a family has four children, there are six children. Regardless of whether the state pays a certain amount, young people will wait for their first child. Therefore, this measure will have an impact, but it will not have much effect.", - considers and. about. Khava Ferzauli, chief obstetrician-gynecologist of the Ministry of Health of Ingushetia.
Marina Yezhova, authorized by the head of Dagestan for the protection of the family, motherhood and child rights, proposes to introduce indirect support measures for parents, for example, to motivate children to enroll in a nursery from an early age so that the mother can work and earn normally. As a result, the child will be supervised, and the mother will have free time for self-realization.
There is a positive example of work in this direction in the Murmansk region, where the birth rate has increased over the past five years due to the birth of third and subsequent children. Here, in addition to childcare payments, the support provides for a number of benefits for popular leisure activities among young people. In particular, it is planned to provide pregnant women with subscriptions to the philharmonic society, after the birth of a child - preferential subscriptions to fitness centers and swimming pools.