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R/£ Declining birthrate forces Russia to award prizes for babies
August 15, 2007 Edition 2
Moscow - A Russian region best known as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin has found a novel way to fight the nation's birthrate crisis: It has declared September 12 the Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate.
The hope is for a big brood of babies exactly nine months later on Russia's national day. Couples who "give birth to a patriot" during the June 12 festivities will win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
Ulyanovsk, a region on the Volga River about 900km east of Moscow, has held similar contests since 2005. Since then, the number of competitors, and the number of babies born to them, has been on the rise.
Alexei Bezrukov and his wife Yulia won a 250 000 roubles (about R70 440) cash prize in June after she gave birth to a baby boy, Andrei.
Bezrukov said patriotism wasn't their motive for having a child, their third, although the money was welcome.
"It was a patriotic atmosphere, you know when everyone around is celebrating, but I wasn't thinking of anything but my son," he said.
"The whole thing is great. It's great to get 250 000 roubles when you have a new baby to take care of."
Russia, with one-seventh of the Earth's land surface, has just 141,4-million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled countries in the world. Due to a low birthrate and very high death rate, the population has been shrinking since the early 1990s.
It is now falling by almost 0,5% each year. Demographic experts expect the decline to accelerate, estimating that Russia's population could fall below 100-million by 2050.
In his state of the nation address last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most acute problem facing Russia and announced a broad effort to boost Russia's birthrate, including cash to families to have more than one child.
Ulyanovsk governor Sergei Morozov has added an element of fun to the campaign.
When he held the first competition in 2005, 311 women signed up to take part and qualify for a half-day off from work.
In June 2006, 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk's 25 hospitals than in June of the previous year, including 28 born on June 12, officials said.
More than 500 women signed up for the second contest on September 12 2006. Exactly nine months later, 78 babies, triple the region's daily average, were born.
They were welcomed into the world as Russia's national anthem was played.
Since the campaign began, the birthrate in the region has risen steadily and is up 4,5% so far this year over the same period in 2006, according to the regional administration's website.
Everyone who has a baby in an Ulyanovsk hospital on Russia Day gets some kind of prize. But the grand prize winners are couples judged to be the fittest parents by a committee that deliberates for two weeks over the selection.
The 2007 grand prize went to Irina and Andrei Kartuzov, who received a UAZ-Patriot, an SUV made in Ulyanovsk.
The selection committee chose the Kartuzovs from among the 78 couples because of their "respectability" and "commendable parenting" of their two older children, a spokesperson for the governor said. - Sapa-AP
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