Putin Announces Big Cash Reward For Women Who Give Birth To 10 Children

Picture courtesy Reuters

Moscow: Worried by declining birth rates in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has issued an order to revive the Soviet-era title of ‘Mother Heroine’.

According to the decree signed by Putin this week, women who bear and raise 10 or more children will be honoured with the ‘Mother Heroine’ title. More significantly, they will receive a one-time payment of 1 million rubles (approx Rs 13 lakh) after the 10th living child turns one.

Mothers will qualify for the award even if any of their children die in battle, as the result of a terrorist act or in an emergency situation.

First introduced in 1944 by Josef Stalin following massive loss of lives during World War II, ‘Mother Heroine’ was stopped post-Cold War, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Russia’s population, which has been falling for decades, is down to 145.1 million currently following a decline of around 400,000 in early 2022.

Since 2021, fall in population has almost doubled as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Russia’s biggest natural population decline, worsening demographic woes.