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- Give birth beautifully: the government wants to increase benefits for pregnant students
Give birth beautifully: the government wants to increase benefits for pregnant students
About 27.7 thousand Russian female students in 2023 combined their studies with motherhood. Of these, 13.5 thousand students were raising children under the age of three, according to the data of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. By the beginning of 2024, the figure has increased to 36.9 thousand people. Against this background, the State Duma proposes to raise the allowance for pregnant students of universities and colleges to the level of the minimum wage. The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education and Science have supported the initiative, while the Ministry of Finance has taken a pause. According to lawmakers, the usual payment of 2-5 thousand rubles may provoke a refusal to give birth to a child. In addition, the future employment and salaries of graduate mothers are vague, and the provision of housing for young families is no less important. Read more about what support measures are being discussed in the Izvestia article.
Why pregnant students should be supported
Several ministries supported the initiative of the State Duma to provide pregnant students with payments in the amount of the minimum wage. Yana Lantratova, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, addressed the government with such a request.
"The size of scholarships in a large number of universities and colleges in Russia is obviously insufficient to ensure a minimum decent standard of living for a woman receiving education and preparing to become a mother," reads the document, which was read by Izvestia.
The proposal of the Duma deputies has already been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Labor (Izvestia has official responses from the agencies). The Ministry of Finance has refrained from commenting on it so far.
The Ministry of Education and Science considers it advisable to consider the possibility of amending the law "On State Benefits to Citizens with Children" so that the benefits would be assigned taking into account the regional minimum wage. The Ministry of Labor notes that the issue should be worked out with the Ministry of Finance and the most appropriate wording should be found. At the moment, the State Duma is actively preparing amendments to the legislation (all documents are at the disposal of Izvestia). The right to financial aid is proposed to provide female students who receive their first full-time education.
According to the legislators, the usual scholarship of universities and colleges in the amount of 2-5 thousand rubles cannot be a tangible support for a pregnant student and provide her with the minimum conditions for a safe pregnancy and childbirth.
At the same time, a university or college student is usually a young woman who has completed her education, a permanent source of income and comfortable living conditions. Lack of financial support from the state may provoke her to refuse to have a child.
- The size of allowances is still under discussion with colleagues from different ministries," Duma deputy Yana Lantratova told Izvestia. - I proposed to tie it to the minimum wage, the Ministry of Education and Science agrees, while the Ministry of Labor believes that the initiative in this part needs to be finalized. We agreed to join forces and together choose the most appropriate wording for the law. It is important to help girls to combine study and pregnancy, to avoid decisions that may be regretted later.
The deputy states that the trend in recent years is that girls are not in a hurry to give birth, but want to first get education and work experience, to earn money.
- Although the main task to increase the birth rate lies on the young generation of 20-30 years old, and it is mostly students of universities, colleges, technical schools, - emphasizes Lantratova. According to the deputy, it is possible to improve the demographic situation by reducing the average age of birth of the first child from the current 28 years to 21-22 years. And for this purpose it is necessary to expand programs of assistance and support of student families.
The SF supports this measure. "Undoubtedly, such support for student families or student mothers is necessary. The allowance will not cover all the needs, but it will definitely improve social well-being, and this is very important," says Senator Olga Epifanova.
According to Rosstat, the share of married full-time students under the age of 30 varies between 3.6 and 5.6%. This figure is significantly lower than the overall rate among Russians of this age.
Senator Epifanova reminded that now many universities have a good set of measures to support student families: they give priority right to places in dormitories, pay one-time financial aid, organize groups of short-term stay of children, mother and child rooms, provide an opportunity to transfer from paid to budgetary places.
- All these support measures should be united, having fixed the status of a student family by law," the parliamentarian points out.
The senator appeals to the experience of the late USSR. In the 80s of the XX century, the state provided for the issuance of one of the spouses under the age of 30 years, studying in the third year and above, interest-free loan to improve housing conditions with a repayment period of up to eight years. Upon the birth of the second child after receiving the loan, part of the debt was repaid, and the same was true for the birth of the third and subsequent children. The loan was granted only if there was at least one child in the family.
According to monitoring data from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, at the beginning of 2024, there were 17,190 student families with children in Russian universities. The number of female students with children today is 36.9 thousand. Almost half of female students (48%) have a child under the age of three, and 35% of female students have children between 3 and 7 years old.
Will the increase in payments help demographics
The average level of the minimum wage in Russia today is about 20 thousand rubles, in 2025 it is approved at the level of 22,440 rubles.
According to an expert of the "Popular Front. Analytics", director of the ANO "Legal Support Center "Mama in Law" Victoria Rashina, the argument that only a guaranteed allowance in the amount of the minimum wage will be able to effectively motivate female students to give birth to the first-born child, seems unconvincing. Especially in situations where the father of the child will also be a student.
- I believe that this measure of support for students should be supplemented by the guaranteed provision of a separate room in a dormitory, a ban on expulsion until the child reaches a certain age, and job security for young parents. Support measures should be comprehensive," says Victoria Rashina.
The birth of the first child in young families is usually hindered by a number of factors, she continues. And the main one, as a rule, is housing conditions: either lack of own housing or its unsatisfactory condition. Other factors families often call the low level of labor remuneration, the lack of guaranteed allowance when the child reaches the age of 1.5 years, difficulties in obtaining a place in kindergarten near home.
Alexander Safonov, professor of economics at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and former deputy minister of health and social development of the Russian Federation, believes that payments in the amount of the minimum wage will certainly not be able to fully fulfill the task of refusing to give birth to a child. There are a lot of components in this issue: the presence of a formalized marriage, the availability of housing, the possibility of help from parents, the prospects of placing a child in a nursery or kindergarten. But nevertheless, substantial material support during the most difficult period of combining study and work can have a favorable impact on the decision to have a child during the period of study.
According to the professor, "material uncertainty may be a reason for abortions among female students, although it is difficult to say that this is the main reason".
- The obstacles to demography lie not in the payments of 2-5 thousand dollars, but in the paradigm of demographic policy," says Alexander Safonov. - If it is built on the principles proposed by the IMF, including social assistance on the basis of need, it will lead to nothing good.
The expert emphasizes that no family wants to be poor and to be helped by the state at that very moment.
- Poverty in our country will only lead to restrictions on childbirth," summarizes Alexander Safonov.
According to him, the main direction in demographic policy should be the care of young families in terms of solving their immediate problems: housing, work, education.
At the same time, Olga Lebedinskaya, Associate Professor of the Department of Statistics at the Plekhanov Russian Economic University, notes that now, unfortunately, the institution of the student family has practically ceased to exist. According to her, female students aged 15-25 in most cases prioritize education as their main priority.
According to the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (EMISS), the number of female students in colleges and universities is growing annually. Thus, in 2023, 910.2 thousand girls 15-19 years old studied in colleges, which is 6.6% more than a year earlier. The number of female university students 18-24 and 20-24 years old last year amounted to 1,950.8 thousand and 1,152 thousand respectively, these figures increased by more than 10% over the year.
- For the institutionalization of the student family, first of all, official marriage is important. The average age of marriage in Russia has already reached 35," emphasizes Olga Lebedinskaya. Unfortunately, there is no concept of a student family in the regulations, and it is the state that should become the fundamental link in this process, the expert concludes.
