Russia offers to female students: In Russia’s Karelia, female students under 25 years of age have been offered 100,000 Russian rubles (about Rs 81,000) to give birth to a healthy child. This policy has been implemented to improve the falling birth rate of the country. This scheme is effective from January 1. Only women who are regular students at a local university or college, under the age of 25 and residents of Karelia will be eligible.
This scheme will not be applicable to those children who give birth to a dead child as per the regional laws. However, it does not state what the payment conditions will be if the child dies suddenly after birth. Similarly, if the child is born with a disability, it is not specified whether the mother will be eligible for this payment or not. Furthermore, the policy makes no mention of additional financial assistance to help with child care and perinatal health expenses.
Karelia is not the only region to offer something like this. At least 11 other regional governments in Russia also offer childbirth incentives to female students. However, experts have called this move short-sighted. They say that this scheme will not be effective in the absence of better security and ideal economic conditions for new mothers.
The declining birth rate in the country is a matter of concern
Only 5,99,600 babies were born in Russia in the first six months of 2024, the lowest in the last 25 years. This figure is 16,000 less than the same period in 2023. In June, the birth rate fell below a historic low of 100,000. According to a report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in July that this is disastrous for the future of the country.
crisis of declining population
The population of Russia was 148 million in the early 1990s, which has now declined to 146 million. The United Nations estimates that by 2100 this number could rise to between 74 million and 112 million. Such short-term measures may not be enough to increase the birth rate, but they certainly draw attention to Russia’s serious population crisis.
