Amid country’s declining birthrate, several regions in Russia have started paying pregnant schoolgirls over 100,000 roubles (around £900) to give birth and raise their children, news agency PTI reported. The initiative, recently expanded to ten regions, is part of a broader demographic strategy aimed at reversing the country’s declining birthrate.The scheme builds on a policy introduced in March 2025 that initially applied only to adult women. With Russia’s fertility rate at just 1.41 births per woman in 2023- well below the 2.05 needed to sustain population levels- the government is now widening its approach.Public opinion is split. A survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, as reported by PTI, found 43% of Russians support the policy, while 40% oppose it. Critics argue that encouraging teenage pregnancies raises ethical concerns, while supporters view it as a necessary step to counter population decline.President Vladimir Putin has made population growth a national priority, equating it with military strength and territorial expansion. However, the ongoing war in Ukraine has worsened demographic challenges. An estimated 250,000 Russian soldiers have died in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of young, educated men have fled the country to avoid conscription, many of whom could have been future fathers.Alongside financial incentives, the Russian government has ramped up moral pressure. It has reintroduced the Stalin-era motherhood medal for women with ten or more children, banned the promotion of childlessness (“child-free propaganda”), and imposed restrictions on abortions in private clinics. Public criticism has grown against women who delay or avoid motherhood in favor of education or careers.Cash, citizenship and babies: A worldwide trendRussia’s demographic concerns reflect a global trend. By 2050, over 75% of countries are expected to face population decline due to low fertility rates. In response, many governments have adopted pronatalist policies.In the US, President Donald Trump has proposed paying women $5,000 to have a baby, part of a broader push to encourage larger families, supported by figures like Elon Musk.Hungary offers tax breaks and subsidised mortgages to families with three or more children. Poland provides families with 500 złoty (£101) per child for the second child onwards.However, the effectiveness of such policies has been mixed. In Poland, for example, higher-income women are less likely to respond to financial incentives due to concerns over career setbacks. Spain, taking a different approach, has addressed population decline by easing pathways to citizenship for migrants, especially from Latin American countries.
Favoring the ‘desirable’ and shaping society through the womb
Critics argue that many pronatalist policies are shaped more by ideology than economics. Governments often aim to encourage births among groups they deem ‘desirable,’ based on race, religion, or socio-economic status, reported PTI.Hungary’s benefits are limited to heterosexual, high-income couples, while Spain has favored Spanish-speaking Catholic migrants over African applicants.Globally, these efforts frequently involve attempts to influence women’s personal choices. While framed as economic necessity, many of these policies carry deeper political agendas—seeking to mold future populations by encouraging childbirth among selected groups and imposing constraints on women’s reproductive freedom.
