Andrey Klychkov, the governor of Russia’s western Oryol region, has raised eyebrows by extending an existing programme that awards pregnant students in higher education with one-off payments of 100,000 rubles (€1,100) to schoolgirls, according to Russia’s legal information website.
After the regional authorities introduced the one-off payments to female students who became pregnant in December, Klychkov amended the decree to cover schoolgirls on 20 March.
Klychkov claimed that over 40 other Russian regions already award schoolgirls who get pregnant with one-off payments, following an order for them to do so issued by the Labour Ministry on 11 February.
Nina Ostanina, who heads the State Duma’s Committee on Family Protection, told state-affiliated news outlet Gazeta.ru that Russian women shouldn’t be encouraged to give birth while still at school.
“A school drop-out is unlikely to be able to contribute as much to the education and upbringing of their child as a parent who has received a full ... education. If a schoolgirl gets pregnant, I would never suggest she terminate the pregnancy. … But it shouldn’t be encouraged,” she said.
She also said that Klychkov was wrong to suggest that 40 Russian regions had approved one-off payments to pregnant schoolgirls as the country attempts to encourage women to have more children. “There are 41 regions, including Oryol, which will receive federal budget funds to boost the birth rate”, she said, adding “that does not extend to schoolgirls.”
In November, the Russian government prepared a draft family and demographic policy focused on raising the country’s low birth rate and promoting “traditional family values”. The goals of the strategy included “preserving the population by increasing the birth rate” and proposals to increase maternity payments for parents having two or more children, and to support the construction of affordable housing, especially for large families.
According to the latest available statistics from the World Bank, the Russian fertility rate in 2022 was 1.42 births per woman, well below the 2.1 children per woman considered to be replacement level in developed countries.