Have a Baby, Get a Home!!!

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Russia offers mothers a free home if they promise to bear three babies
(Filed: 27/12/2002)


Drastic steps are being taken to halt the falling birth rate in Russia. Julius Strauss reports from Zolotukha


The deal Natasha was offered was simple: prove she was fertile, that her husband was not an alcoholic and agree to having three children in five years.

In exchange the local council would buy her a house of her own. Providing she fulfilled her child-bearing obligations there would be no repayments to make, and, after five years, nothing owing.

The babies-for-houses scheme was introduced this year in Ahtubinsk, a poverty-stricken region of southern Russia. It is a desperate attempt to reverse the falling birthrate, that, if it is not checked, will depopulate swathes of the area.

The problem is one shared by the whole of Russia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Aids, alcoholism and poverty have pushed the country's population into decline.

According to some predictions, at present rates the population could fall from 143 million to 90 million by 2050. Last year President Putin said the problem threatened the very existence of Russia.

In Soviet times Ahtubinsk was a proud town. Chosen as a secret testing centre for Sukhoi fighter aircraft, it was home to thousands of pilots.

Now most have left, the only restaurant is shabby and empty and the local market sells cheap goods from China and Vietnam and unappetising salty fish. The blocks of houses have been neglected and inches of mud cover the pavements and roads.

But the biggest problem is the lack of babies. In the region officials say 1,300 people died last year and only 848 children were born.

Now, frustrated at what they say is a lack of determination to deal with the problem at the top, local authorities have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Alexei Furik, the regional administrator who dreamt up the homes scheme, said: "Since the collapse of the USSR we have been losing two per cent of our population a year. The government and the president always talk about this problem but they never do anything. So we decided to act alone."

Setting aside one per cent of the local budget, council officials began advertising for applicants at the beginning of the year. Since then they have financed 10 new homes. They say that of the couples who signed up, four already have babies and several more are pregnant.

"We have been forced to turn away families this year because the budget has run out," said Irina Lesenko, an official in charge of looking for houses and approving applications.

"Next year we hope to allocate more money as there is a great demand." Each couple who sign up are contractually obliged to have three babies in five years. If they only have two, they have to return half the cost of the house. For one baby the sum is two thirds.

Husband and wife must be under 30 and provide solid work references. The man must prove he is not an alcoholic or drug abuser and the woman must undergo a medical test to show that she can have children.

If all is well, contracts are drawn up and signed and the couple can begin the search for a house. With the local property market in the doldrums, £600 to £1,200 can usually secure a home.

Natasha and Konstantin chose a neat, well-kept house in the village of Zolotukha, which came with a cowshed, a chicken pen and a traditional Russian bathhouse.

Konstantin works for the local telephone company and earns £30 a month. With vegetables, eggs and milk from their own garden, the couple have enough to get by.

Standing on the house steps holding three-month-old Dasha, their first "contracted" baby, Natasha said: "Konstantin and I have only just got married but we would never have had enough money to buy our own house. We wanted to have children anyway - perhaps only two - but now we will have three."

A few hundred yards away Vadim Ibragimov, 26, a tractor driver, was fixing up his new home, also bought under the scheme. His wife Lyudmila, 24, is a night-time security guard at the local school. He said: "There's no way we could have bought our own house on the salaries we get."

The local mayor, Fedor Donskoy, was more sceptical about the future. "Having children is easy," he said. "It is bringing them up that costs money.

"Sending a child to school is like sending a Cossack to battle. Just as the Cossack needs a horse, a gun and ammunition, the child needs books, clothes and food. This is a poor village."