Russian senators: the government actively supports mothers

Mother's Day is to be celebrated in Russia on Sunday, November 29th. This holiday was established in 1998. This year it is on the last Sunday of November.

On the threshold of this date a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed senators Irina Hecht, Yulia Veprintseva and Elena Popova about public policy on support for motherhood in our country.

The deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and the Environment, Irina Hecht, said that the state pays enough attention to the problems of motherhood, but at the moment the social support is not covered fully.

"They are families with many children, single-parent families, as well as families with small children. Unfortunately, today poverty is shifted to those sectors of the population, and they receive small benefits, or state support, trying to survive in these economic conditions on their own. Therefore, the president's message to review the principles of social support, assessing targeting and need are directed at assisting households, not individual citizens, and they will be implemented," the senator said.

A member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, Yulia Veprintseva, believes that the state pays sufficient attention to the problems of motherhood. "The laws of maternity capital and social benefits for mothers and children from 1.5 to 3 years old have already been worked out. Therefore, I believe that the state carries out a large format of works to support the social status of our mothers," she said.

However, there are still some unresolved issues in the country. "Enough kindergartens were built for children from 3 to 7 years old. But there are not enough day nurseries for children younger than 1.5 years. Of course, some mothers would like to start working early, but they cannot do that. I would like it if the state could support the program to increase the number of kindergartens with groups for little babies," the parliamentarian said.

A member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, Yelena Popova, said that over the past 10 years the state paid 70% more attention than during the previous decade. 

"Our committee adopts a lot of bills, which become federal laws in support of families, motherhood and childhood. We adopted two such projects during the last session. In my opinion, on the one hand they increased the standard tax deduction for families with disabled children, but now we say that people with disabilities are ordinary citizens of society, although earlier this notion was interpreted in a completely different way,'' she said.