MINSK, 14 October (BelTA) – In the past ten years, the number of large families in Belarus has almost doubled, Belarus Labor and Social Security Minister Irina Kostevich said as she met with mothers of many children in the Minsk Town Hall on 14 October, BelTA has learned.
“Belarus has done a lot for large families. In the past ten years, their number almost doubled. There are more than 110,000 large families with almost 360,000 children in the country, or 19% of the total number of children. Almost every fifth kid is raised in a large family,” Irina Kostevich noted.
Belarus has launched a database of large families. “Thanks to it, we can monitor the number of large families by region. Brest Oblast is currently in the lead. We can also see the number of families with three, four, five or more kids. Belarus' largest family lives in Ivatsevichi District – they have recently had their 14th child,” the minister said.
This database will be upgraded to help keep track of the government's assistance to large families, their needs, housing conditions, and which kindergartens and schools children attend. “This will help us carefully shape the family policy. It is a very good mechanism,” Irina Kostevich stressed.
She also spoke about measures of government support for families with kids. She pointed out why Belarus gives so much attention and funds to this aspect of the social policy. Belarus has fallen victim to the global trend towards late marriages and late children, a decline in the birth rate and population ageing. “If the population continues diminishing, this country will disappear. It is crucial to increase the birth rate and the population,” the minister said. “The main indicator of the birth rate in the country is the total fertility rate: the number of children per woman. There was a time when it exceeded the reproduction rate, when every woman gave birth to two or more children. That was in 1960 when this figure stood at 2.8. In 2019, it was 1.38. This is a serious demographic challenge. This is why the measures we are taking are meant to reverse this trend and achieve the rate of 2.1,” Irina Kostevich added.
