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Birthright: the government has approved an action plan as part of the demographic strategy
The Government has approved an action plan for the implementation of the demographic strategy. This is a comprehensive document with a set of measures to support families, experts explain. This systematic approach is designed to create a good foundation for improving the demographic situation. What measures are included in the plan can be found in the Izvestia article.
A strategic approach
The Government has approved the action plan of the strategy for the implementation of family and demographic policy and support for large families in Russia until 2036. The corresponding decree was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The plan contains 129 events, divided into eight sections.
Among the tasks set by the authorities are:
— Strengthening the institution of family and marriage by preserving and promoting traditional values;
— formation of motivation among citizens to lead a healthy lifestyle, creation of conditions for timely prevention of diseases;
— strengthening of parental and child health;
— improvement of the support system for families with children;
— assistance in the successful combination of family and professional realization;
— formation of a family-oriented infrastructure;
— assistance to families in improving their living conditions;
— support of families in special life situations.
Also among the tasks set is to assist the regions in developing and implementing a family-oriented demographic policy.
Among the measures aimed at strengthening the institution of the family, the plan proposes the improvement of family legislation. We are talking about the mediation procedure in case of conflicts and additional measures to improve the effectiveness of the fulfillment of alimony obligations.
To promote health, it is planned to create and equip health centers, conduct in-depth examinations of citizens at risk for various diseases, develop individual programs for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, introduce special corporate health promotion programs, as well as create centers for early physical development of children, etc.
The authorities also plan to modernize perinatal centers, women's consultations, and children's clinics and hospitals. One of the goals is to increase the coverage of newborns by extended neonatal screening to 95%. In addition, it is planned to improve the quality of medical and social support for women who have given birth to a child and families with newborn children. Other measures include improving the accessibility and effectiveness of compulsory health care for infertile patients.
They will expand support for families by providing annual payments to citizens with two or more children. At the same time, the number of universities offering discounts on paid tuition to students from large families will be increased. Conditions for the provision of maternity capital and tools aimed at increasing housing affordability for young families and couples with children will be improved.
A separate block of events is aimed at supporting those who seek to combine parental duty with professional fulfillment. To this end, conditions will be created to support employees, and it is planned to promote the best practices of employers in this area.
Among the measures provided for in the plan are major repairs and retrofitting of kindergartens, increasing the transport accessibility of educational institutions for children from remote areas, developing public spaces for family recreation, as well as improving the quality of recreation and recreation conditions for children, etc.
Mikhail Mishustin, at a meeting with the deputy prime ministers on December 29, recalled that improving the demographic situation, supporting fertility, improving people's quality of life, and promoting the values of a large family are national priorities outlined by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The editorial board of Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation. No response has been received at the time of publication.
Disappointing values
According to the total birth rate in Russia today, the situation is not the worst, draws the attention of Sergey Rybalchenko, Director General of the Institute of Scientific and Public Expertise, Chairman of the Russian Federation's Commission on Demography, Family Protection, and Children. However, in terms of the number of births, the country is close to the historical minimum.
In 2024, the total fertility rate in Russia was 1.4, recalls Elena Churilova, senior researcher at the International Laboratory for Population and Health Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. According to the latest data for November 2025, this indicator has decreased to 1.38. And, most likely, it will remain at this level by the end of the year, which indicates a low birth rate in Russia.
"Despite the fact that indicators have improved slightly in 25 Russian regions, the bottleneck has not yet been passed," says Sergey Chesnokov, head of the Demographic Platform of the Russian Federation project.
Churilova suggests approaching the thesis that the measures provided for in the demographic strategy implementation plan will help increase the total fertility rate to target levels of 1.6 by 2030 and 1.8 by 2036 with caution.
"Achieving fertility indicators will depend on whether the maternity capital program changes, and how quickly the opportunity to improve housing conditions increases for both young families who are just planning to have children, and those who need to change their existing square meters," she notes.
In addition, the target fertility rate (1.6) does not ensure the reproduction of the population, which has been repeatedly pointed out by both public experts and representatives of government authorities, Rybalchenko points out.
— We need to set a higher bar for the growth of the total fertility rate, above 2, in order to solve the strategic task of restoring population reproduction. And for this, more serious measures are needed," the expert is convinced.
The issue of implementation
The demographic strategy itself is based on an integrated approach and covers a wide range of measures aimed not only at direct support, but also infrastructural changes, the Popular Front expert recalls. Analytics" by Irina Blinkova.
The action plan developed for its implementation is a comprehensive and long—awaited document, said Saniy Koval, member of the State Council of the Russian Federation for Family, member of the commission of the General Council of the United Russia Party for the protection of motherhood, childhood and family support.
— It is very important that support measures are considered comprehensively, from health to values. Such a systematic approach creates a good foundation," she draws attention.
The plan will help strengthen maternal, child and reproductive health of the population, improve the well-being and quality of life of families with children, help create infrastructure for them and provide more opportunities for combining work and parenting, Elena Churilova is confident.
The list of events sets the right direction and creates the necessary tools, but it is important to take into account that demography is primarily related to citizens' trust in the state and stability, Koval clarifies.
— The goals will be achieved only if every measure is tangible for the family in its daily life, — the interlocutor of Izvestia is convinced.
The effectiveness of the plan will also be determined not by the number of designated points, but by the quality of execution, well-coordinated coordination between departments and the sufficiency of resources, including financial ones, Blinkova emphasizes.
— Besides, everything will depend on who will implement these points, how seriously the expert community, public organizations, business and traditional confessions will be involved, — Sergey Chesnokov adds.
Caring for the future
In the context of constant changes in the country and in the world, any measures that give the family stability and stability, primarily material, become key, family systemic psychotherapist Maxim Shmatov is convinced.
— If parents do not understand whether they will be able to feed their children tomorrow, all the talk about traditional values will hang in the air. It is on the basis of material and social stability that a family can build emotional peace and mutual assistance, guarantee the transfer of values, which is the real goal of a good demographic strategy," he is convinced.
Socio-economic measures are essential to increase the birth rate and support families with children, confirms Sergey Rybalchenko.
— Of these, I would single out two points in which there are no specific measures, but which allow us to develop and propose new support measures. These are paragraph 70, "Development of the system of state support for families with children in connection with the birth and upbringing of children," as well as paragraph 85, "Improvement of the conditions for the provision of maternal family capital and the procedure for its use," the expert says.
Irina Blinkova sees the most significant measures in terms of direct demographic impact as those aimed at supporting large families, improving people's health and creating conditions for combining parenthood and work. In particular, the increase in the availability of extended-day groups, the repair of kindergartens, assistance in the employment of mothers.
Elena Churilova adds to them measures to prevent diseases, increase the availability of recreation for families with children and provide annual family payments to citizens with two or more children. She also highlights increasing housing affordability, in particular scaling up the rental housing program to all regions and encouraging low-rise construction.
Sergey Rybalchenko also considers it significant to reduce the time spent by young families on the waiting list for better housing conditions.
All motivating activities are of no small importance in the implementation of the plan, summarizes Sergey Chesnokov.
"As Russian President Vladimir Putin rightly said at a meeting of the council for the implementation of state demographic and family policy, monetary stimulus measures are not enough, there must necessarily be motivational measures," he recalls.
In particular, activities aimed at working with men are very important, because today support measures mainly concern women. At the same time, in order for most families to have many children, it is necessary to focus on motivating the male population, the expert says.
Preventing difficulties
Since there are many support tools in the plan, implementation may be difficult, Elena Churilova does not exclude. For example, it concerns the protection of health and the effectiveness of medical examinations for different groups of the population.
— It may be that citizens will not fully understand the importance of medical examinations, and medical organizations, in turn, will conduct it formally, — admits the interlocutor of Izvestia.
There is also a risk that support will focus only on citizens who meet fairly narrow criteria, which is why only a small proportion of families will be able to take advantage of the measures, the expert draws attention to.
— Another difficulty is the feeling of reproductive pressure by young women: it is important not to overdo it with the number of mass events, social advertising and with increasing the attractiveness of the family lifestyle, but to direct more resources to real support for families so that care is felt not in words, but in deeds, — emphasizes Churilova.
According to Maxim Shmatov, one of the key problems is the human and managerial potential. It is important who will implement the action plan on the ground. Officials, social workers, and experts should be united by a single ideology and motivation.
Regional inequality should also be taken into account, the Izvestia interlocutor adds.
"The quality of the implementation of any of the 129 proposed measures will critically depend on the capabilities of a particular region, its budget and the competence of administrations," he says.
The big difficulty is to assess the demographic impact of the measures taken, says Sergey Rybalchenko.
— To understand the effectiveness, we need an objective assessment by experts, the introduction of demographic expertise, conducting large-scale sociological research, and analyzing the reproductive plans of the population. Such work will make it possible in the coming years to determine what should be focused on first of all when allocating resources, the expert believes.
Meanwhile, Sergey Chesnokov sees the main difficulty in the fact that issues can be resolved in a directive manner, without involving broad circles of society.
There is also a risk of "overregulation" of events, warns Saniy Koval, but values, motivation and the atmosphere in the family are delicate matters.
— They cannot be implemented by directives. The key task is to fill the plan with live content through partnership with NGOs that are at the forefront every day, hear the real needs of people and are already creating working models of care, like the same postpartum support rooms. The state can build a framework, but it is possible to make the space comfortable and viable only through the joint efforts of society, volunteers and, of course, the families themselves, who by their example create the very environment for growth," the expert summarizes.
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