|
From Russia With Love
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Time2Burn |
| quote: | Russians offered day off, prizes to procreate
Officials hope ‘Day of Conception’ will help turn around declining birthrate
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:24 p.m. ET Aug 14, 2007
MOSCOW - A Russian region best known as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin has found a novel way to fight the nation’s birthrate crisis: It has declared Sept. 12 the Day of Conception and for the third year running is giving couples time off from work to procreate.
The hope is for a brood of babies exactly nine months later on Russia’s national day. Couples who “give birth to a patriot” during the June 12 festivities win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.
Ulyanovsk, a region on the Volga River about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held similar contests since 2005. Since then, the number of competitors, and the number of babies born to them, has been on the rise.
Alexei Bezrukov and his wife, Yulia, won a 250,000 ruble prize — equivalent to $10,000 — in June after she gave birth to a baby boy, Andrei. Bezrukov said patriotism wasn’t their motive for having a child, their third, although the money was welcome.
“It was a patriotic atmosphere, you know when everyone around is celebrating, but I wasn’t thinking of anything but my son,” he said. “The whole thing is great, it’s great to get 250,000 rubles when you have a new baby to take care of.”
Sparsely populated country
Russia, with one-seventh of the Earth’s land surface, has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled countries in the world. With a low birthrate and very high death rate, the population has been shrinking since the early 1990s.
It is now falling by almost half a percent each year. Demographic experts expect the decline to accelerate, estimating that Russia’s population could fall below 100 million by 2050.
In his state of the nation address last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most acute problem facing Russia and announced a broad effort to boost Russia’s birthrate, including cash incentives to families to have more than one child.
Ulyanovsk Governor Sergei Morozov has added an element of fun to the national campaign.
When he held the first competition in 2005, 311 women signed up to take part — and qualify for a half-day off from work. In June 2006, 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk’s 25 hospitals than in June of the previous year, including 28 born on June 12, officials in the governor’s office said.
More than 500 women signed up for the second contest on Sept. 12, 2006. Exactly nine months later, 78 babies, triple the region’s daily average, were born. They were welcomed into the world as Russia’s national anthem was played, the officials said.
Steadily rising birthrate
Since the campaign began, the birthrate in the region has risen steadily and is up 4.5 percent so far this year over the same period in 2006, according to the regional administration’s Web site.
Everyone who has a baby in an Ulyanovsk hospital on Russia Day gets some kind of prize. But the grand prize winners are couples judged to be the fittest parents by a committee that deliberates for two weeks over the selection.
The 2007 grand prize went to Irina and Andrei Kartuzov, who received a UAZ-Patriot, an SUV made in Ulyanovsk. They told reporters they were planning to have another child anyway when they heard about the contest.
Irina Kartuzova had to have a Caesarian section to deliver the baby and it was scheduled for June 12.
The selection committee chose the Kartuzovs from among the 78 couples because of their “respectability” and “commendable parenting” of their two older children, a spokesman for the governor said.
Other contestants won video cameras, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines.
Under the federal program, women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are to receive certificates worth $10,000, which can be used to pay for education or to improve the family’s living conditions.
Monthly support payments were raised this year to $60 from $28.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
A National Holiday reserved for sex.
Awesome. |
|
|
| FunkyCrew |
| From Russia with Love ;) |
|
|
| Time2Burn |
| Ooopsies thanks Matt Darey. |
|
|
| Kamka |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
hahahahha. |
What's so funny about it?
It's not bad I think!
In Slovakia, the only people who really get cash incentives for having many kids, are gypsies.
No racism intended. |
|
|
| RobotHouse |
| From Russia with the Love Bone. |
|
|
| FunkyCrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by Kamka
What's so funny about it?
It's not bad I think!
In Slovakia, the only people who really get cash incentives for having many kids, are gypsies.
No racism intended. |
it IS hilarious
I read a Russian article about this, and it's such a joke - one of the "provinces" (oblast') awards new moms with some badge for giving birth, no real compensation is involved |
|
|
| EvilTree |
I believe Nazis gave out awards for moms who gave birth to a lot of kids too.
Not that I'm drawing comparison with this Russkie holiday, but as a sidenote in history :p |
|
|
| Cosmic Fur |
| quote: | Originally posted by Kamka
What's so funny about it?
It's not bad I think!
In Slovakia, the only people who really get cash incentives for having many kids, are gypsies.
No racism intended. |
If you can't see what's funny about a country making a whole day specifically for people to conceive children, then you and I are very different people. I understand they have a problem with the birthrate, but this is a really silly way of going about "solving" it. Next we're going to hear about the Russian Government intentionally stocking faulty condoms in drug stores to get the birthrate up (which, btw, I would not be really surprised at).
Edit: and the whole "patriot" thing smacks of totalitarianism. |
|
|
| jchung52 |
| hmm... i could use some lovin |
|
|
| Endlesswave |
Oh the irony of this day. ;)
Hah, hilarious. |
|
|
|
|
