Rustem Khamitov has held meeting dedicated to birth rate increasing

UFA, 3 February 2017. /Bashinform News Agency/. On February 2, the Head of Bashkortostan Rustem Khamitov held a session on issues of birth rate increasing in the region.

It was attended by heads of ministries and departments, representatives of science and public health.

The Head of the Republic noted that in 2013 the natural population growth in Bashkortostan exceeded 21 thousand people.

“The last year of 2016, which to a certain extent gave us not much desired results in terms of birth rate, however, demonstrated the number of 13.7 births per one thousand people. This is by six percent higher than in the Volga Federal District, and on average in Russia,” said Rustem Khamitov. “We see that a lot of families take decision on the second and third child. This is largely due to state support rendered to large families in the form of various payments, benefits, allowances.”

The Head of the Republic shared with plans to increase the volume of high-tech care with the use of IVF technology and establishing a Genomic Medicine Centre to detect genetic disorders in hereditary diseases.

In addition, it was adopted a regional plan with measures to reduce mortality from major causes - diseases of the circulatory system, tumours, infant mortality, external causes. The program aims at extending the life expectancy in the republic to 72 years.

“The measures to support families with children are fully implemented. In particular, last year the Ministry of Labour provided assistance to families with children, in the amount of 4.5 billion rubles, including more than 1.9 billion rubles from the republican budget,” told Rustem Khamitov. “More than 135 thousand families have decided their housing problems due to maternity capital funds for the whole period of this support mechanism existence - since 2007. Only in 2016 31.5 thousand families were able to improve their living conditions. The maternity capital program will last until 2018. I think that many more families will be able to use it and will improve their living conditions for the rest of the year.”

However, according to the Head of the Republic, there are some problems to be solved. Thus, according to the preliminary data, the number of births in the republic in 2016 was nearly three thousand less than a year earlier.

“Except Ufa, almost all cities have negative tendencies in population growth. This is an alarming situation.”

An analysis of the demographic situation in the republic was presented at the session, measures aimed at stimulating birth rate and reducing mortality were discussed there.