Why Vladimir Putin wants Russian women to have ‘eight or more’ children

Russian president Vladimir Putin wants women in his country to have eight or more children. His remarks come in the backdrop of Russia’s bloody war with Ukraine that has resulted in lakhs of casualties and the country’s steadily declining birth rate. While Moscow has not confirmed the figures, Kyiv claims Russia has lost 300,000 lives since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine last February. What has Vladimir Putin said? What has Russia done to tackle its falling birth rate? Let’s take a closer look. Putin calls for making ‘large’ families The Russian president said large families should be “the norm” in the country. Addressing the World Russian People’s Council in Moscow virtually on Tuesday (28 November), Putin said increasing the Russian population will be “our goal for the coming decades”, according to The Independent report. “Many of our peoples maintain the tradition of the family, where four, five or more children are raised. Recall that in Russian families our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had both seven and eight children. Let us preserve and revive these traditions. Having many children, a large family, should become a norm, a way of life for all the peoples of Russia,” he reportedly said. [caption id=“attachment_13454302” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Vladimir Putin has said boosting the Russian population will be ‘our goal for the coming decades’. AP File Photo[/caption] Putin said that boosting the population was Russia’s “goal for the coming decades and even generations ahead. This is the future of the Russian world, the millennium-old, eternal Russia," NDTV quoted him as saying. Impact of Russia’s war Although the Russian president’s speech did not directly refer to the loss in population due to casualties in the Ukraine war, his statements are being linked to the conflict. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in November that more than 300,000 Russian soldiers have died in the war. Fatalities have also included many high-ranking Russian officials. As per a Newsweek report, Russia has lost at least seven generals in the Ukraine war. People have also left the country to escape the conflict. Citing independent policy group Re:Russia, The Independent reported that approximately 820,000-920,000 people have fled Russia since the invasion of Ukraine last year. Russia’s population crisis Russia has been witnessing a fall in the birth rate since the 1990s. Its population peaked in 1992 at 149 million (14.9 crores) and is currently down to about 144.4 million, reported Al Jazeera. Russia is recording 1.5 births per woman, which is lower than the rate of 2.1 required to maintain the population. As per The Independent, experts say stringent abortion rules and the worsening economy are behind the declining birth rate in Russia. Addressing the issue of low fertility has been a key agenda since Putin came to power. His government has taken several measures, including offering financial incentives to families with more than one child. The Kremlin relaunched the Soviet-era Mother Heroine award for women with 10 or more children, granting a lump sum cash prize of $16,500 (over Rs 13 lakh). However, these steps have failed to tackle the population crisis. Russia , which Putin describes as a country of “traditional family values”, has cracked down on reproductive rights in recent months. There has been a rise in anti-abortion steps at a wider scale. [caption id=“attachment_13454322” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Russia has been witnessing a fall in the birth rate since the 1990s. Reuters (Representational Image)[/caption] In the central Nizhny Novgorod region, lawmakers said recently they will submit a draft amendment to the Russian Parliament to ban abortions at private clinics, reported The Moscow Times. This comes after authorities in several areas across Russia and even in occupied Crimea claimed that private clinics had “voluntarily” agreed to stop facilitating abortions. In October, laws restricting access to abortion drugs were passed. As per Al Jazeera, two Russian regions, Mordovia and Tver, passed legislations in August and November to punish anyone who would “coerce” women into getting abortions. The Russian Orthodox church is also reportedly pushing for limiting the period for legal abortion to eight weeks or 12 weeks in cases of rape. “These attempts to ban abortion have been happening for the last five years, but no one paid much attention,” Zalina Marshenkulova, an activist and prominent Russian feminist blogger, told Al Jazeera. “Women’s voices aren’t generally heard in a patriarchal state. Women’s problems aren’t considered important problems.” Observers say Russia’s war with Ukraine has once again put the spotlight on the country’s demographic concerns. But it is not only Russia that is facing a declining population problem. The birth rate in Ukraine decreased by 28 per cent since the start of the war, with 38,324 fewer babies born in the country in the first six months of 2023 as compared to 2021, The Guardian reported citing data analytics company OpenDataBot. This is the largest drop since Ukraine’s independence in 1991. With inputs from agencies