By encouraging couples to stay home and hopefully conceive a child, “Family Contact Day” in the Ulyanovsk region in Russia is the government’s attempt to avert the disastrous population decline which is threatening Russian society.

Many parts of Russia’s northern and eastern regions are characterised by an aged workforce and empty villages. Experts project that the country’s population could diminish by as much as 40 percent in the next 50 years largely as a result of falling birth rates and high mortality rates. Therefore, the government has decided to take steps to avoid the unfolding catastrophe.

Family Contact Day is designed to stem this trend by encouraging people to conceive children. The local government offers further incentives in the form of prizes – ranging from cars to televisions – for those couples that give birth on National Day, 12 June. Similar programs conducted in the region over the last few years seem to have had a positive effect as the birth rate has increased by almost 5 percent.

However, in a country where men have an average life expectancy of less than 59 years compared to the EU average of more than 75, some experts suggest that control of the mortality rate wold be more effective.

Although the longterm effectiveness of this initiative is yet to be witnessed, it demonstrates how governments attempt to influence population demographics within a given context.

Images:
1. Irina and Andrei Kartuzov drive away in their new UAZ-Patriot SUV, after they won the car as a grand prize in a regional contest titled "Give Birth to a Patriot on Russia's Independance Day". (AP Photo/Ulyanovsk press service, HO, file);
2. scanned.wordpress.com;
3. gregparis@morguefile.com, France.

Other sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6990802.stm
http://russiatoday.ru/features/news/13968