LARGE FAMILY STATUS

The Abbasov family already had one child, a four-year-old girl. They wanted to have a second child, but the second child turned out to be quadruplets, three girls and one boy. They were born during the Novruz [Spring festival] holidays. No one will argue that this is unprecedented good luck. But it would be acting against one's conscience not to acknowledge that this also means unprecedented expenses for a family on an extremely modest income.

What is to be done?

Just imagine for a moment that, when one child is born, you need to buy a minimum of one set of things for the infant, but if there are quadruplets, then you have to purchase four all at the same time (!), and what about the baby food, the nappies and many other things that cost quite a lot. You also need to remember that one packet of nappies and one tin of baby food is not enough for a month. You have to buy at least two of each. And then there's the baby's hygiene needs - shampoos, children's creams, as well as the feeding bottles, dummies, cups and dishes for different ages, high chairs, clothing for rapidly growing children and money for medical checks? In that situation, toys are probably a whim, although they should not be. And so on and so forth. God willing, these children all start nursery, then school, at the same time… Is there any need to say how much that all costs in a family with only one breadwinner, a man employed in casual work with a monthly wage of 400 manats, from which 300 manats have to be paid out in rent.

Rashad Abbasov came to Baku from Salyan district to earn money. At that time, his family consisted of three people. Now three adults are living in a one-room flat because Rashad's mother has come from Salyan to help her daughter-in-law with five small children.

But there are some kind people in the world. Neighbours, journalists, who learned of the Abbasovs' difficulties are doing what they can. Some bring food, some money and some clothing for the children. The head of the family is grateful, but at the same time he feels embarrassed. Today there is only one thing that he wants, to find a permanent job with a decent wage. True, there are those who condemn Abbasov, saying that "with such a modest wage he should have taken the decision to end the pregnancy and ask why give birth to even more poor people?" But, when you think about it, not everyone can take that decision, since the children were essentially wanted. It is not to be ruled out that the Abbasovs, in having a large family, had hoped for some help from the state. But do such benefits exist and to what extent are they sufficiently helpful?

Encouraging population growth

In the Soviet period large families had the right to benefits in order to encourage natural population growth. They could be given a car, allocated a flat or a plot of land ahead of the queue and Mother Heroines were awarded badges to wear, received bonuses and could retire with a pension earlier than the rest of the workforce. There is none of this in Azerbaijan since the concept of a large family is not customary in our country. Elgun Safarov, the deputy head of the legal department of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, reported to Regionplus in a conversation that the above-mentioned department has submitted to the country's parliament a proposal on restoring Mother-Heroine status and on the entitlement of large families to certain benefits.

"We hope that the status will be given to women with five children," the official says. It has also been proposed that that large-family status should be given to women who give birth to triplets. "The proposals are the result of the numerous applications to the Education Committee, mainly from families with four or five children. The requests were for help in solving certain problems, in the main, housing allocation and assistance in paying for medical treatment," the State Committee representative notes.

If we go back in history, in the Soviet period Azerbaijan was by no means at the bottom of the list when it came to the number of large families: in the 1970s a family would quite often have seven or eight children and in the southern regions even 10, 12 or 15 children! In the 1990s the "Mother Heroine" title was abolished,

and women started to have fewer children. It is quite obvious that those were difficult times. According to data from the State Statistical Committee, no Mother Heroines have been registered in Azerbaijan over the past 20 years. But this by no means signifies that there may not be any large families in the country in the future. Consequently, the large family concept should exist whatever the circumstances. You see, it does exist in European countries with low birth-rate coefficients.

Incidentally, the "Mother-Heroine" concept has in itself undergone transformation as well. Whereas 20 years ago, it applied to a woman who had given birth to eight to 10 children, now the unofficial bearer of this status is a mother of four or five children. The statistics show that over the last few years the population's birth-rate coefficient has gone down: at present there are two children to every woman of reproductive age. On the whole, as Elgun Safarov reported, the proposal submitted to the Milli Maclis (parliament) not only proposed restoring "Mother-Heroine" status, but also most importantly improving the family's material situation. Thus, this includes providing education and improving housing conditions for large families. Besides one-off and annual payments for each child, it also proposes that their medical costs should be paid.

Why is that necessary?

Experts warn that, if the necessary measures to encourage natural population growth are not taken in time, Azerbaijan is threatened with depopulation. According to the data from the State Statistical Committee, if the present birth rate is maintained, by 2020 our population will be 10.450m. If the birth-rate drops, it is thought that the maximum number of the population will be 10.293m (this is almost the figure specified in the "Azerbaijan-2020: view to the Future" development concept).

If we take a look at the State Statistical Committee's statistics accounts, we can notice that, whereas in 1991 the birth rate was 26.6 children per 1,000 of the population, in 2013 it was 18.6. According to the data from the 1999-2009 population census, the families' ratio has changed: the share of one-child families has increased from 22.5 per cent to 30.1 per cent. At the same time, the number of families with three children has decreased from 25.5 per cent to 19.9 per cent, while the number of families with four or more children has fallen from 16.7 per cent to 9.7 per cent.

All this is happening owing to the fact that for the moment a concept of boosting the birth rate has not been developed in Azerbaijan. The 85-manat one-off payment on the birth of a child is small and does not encourage women to have more children.

Proceeding from this, it is not very clear why the draft law "On providing state support for big families", which has been much touted in the press, has not become a topic of discussion in the Milli Maclis. The deputies are saying that, if there are hardly any large families in Azerbaijan, then there is no need to discuss assistance and state support for them.

"Are we really entitled to anything?"

Zaman Gamzayev has six children. The first was a little girl, born in 2000. The sixth child was born in 2014. Taking into account the fact that it is very difficult to bring up a child these days, both from a material and a psychological point of view. Zaman and his wife may quite rightly be called brave people and may unofficially be given the status of a large family. When the Regionplus correspondent learned about the number of children in Zaman's family, he asked the single bread-winner a completely reasonable question: "Are you getting any benefits from the state?" Zaman was surprised: "But are we really entitled to anything?" We promised to find out. It turned out that he is entitled to something. But we would like to start off by noting that Zaman does not have a permanent job. He makes out anyway he can, either working on a building site or fixing something for somebody.

But what if we fuss around and find out what right the family might have to some assistance. Zaman obviously wasn't up to doing it. But a citizen ought to know what his rights are and how to defend them. You see, it is quite possible that there are such large families in our country that have simply not been registered, so the deputies are misled by these statistics and these families are not receiving any payments.

Moreover, as reported to Regionplus at the Ministry for Labour and Social Protection, according to the presidential decree of 1 January 2014, families that have five children or more, are paid a monthly compensation allowance of 30 manats per child. The family is entitled to this allowance until the child reaches the age of 18 years.

Benefits are also envisaged for the mothers of large families as they grow older. At the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs they think that this benefit is undoubtedly rather small. The issue of large families therefore needs to be examined not only from the point of view of encouraging population growth. No-one is insured against quadruplets or quintuplets being born into the family or even more children as happened in the case of the Abbasov family for example.

Noteworthy

Over the last few years state-of-the art maternity homes, hospitals and perinatal clinics have appeared in the country. But unfortunately families in our country still cannot receive assistance comparable to that in European countries. But higher standards of living do not automatically lead to a rise in the birth rate. In many European Union countries, the minimum wage is by no means low, but it does not result in a higher birth rate. Experts say that measures to encourage birth-rate growth only help where there continues to be a potential need for children. In Azerbaijan there is this need. On the whole, the system of social support for the institution of having big families differs abroad. In this connection, a way of supporting the institution of big families needs to be found in Azerbaijan, which would correspond to the actual situation at present.

Some kind of "social package for children" could serve as a practical form of assistance, as an alternative to monetary benefits. This could embrace the things that children need such as a range of the necessary clothing and footwear depending on age, food coupons, selections of school stationery and textbooks, trips for summer holidays and recreation for the whole family, priority in the allocation of free pre-school and school places in educational institutions and higher educational establishments and so forth. This could be funded by enterprises and producers of goods and services which should receive tax breaks from the state and the right to priority offers of state orders.

Reform of the tax concessions should be another progressive measure to protect the rights of children from large families, to ensure that they are provided with a fitting standard of living.

In Sweden, for example, the state subsidises large families by partially reimbursing them for their rent. Citizens do not need to pay more than 40 per cent of the rent even for a spacious flat in the central districts of the towns. The state provides low income families with additional benefits to cover the extra rent when a child is born and they have to move to bigger accommodation. State subsidies are

increased according to the number of children in the family. Housing benefit for a family with children is 600 kronas (70 dollars) per month for a family with one child, 900 kronas (110 dollars) for a family with two children and 1,200 kronas (140 dollars) for a family with three children. Approximately 30 per cent of Swedish families receive this type of benefit.

In France, the country with the highest birth rate in continental Europe, besides subsidies for big families, each subsequent child means a reduction in the basic tax rate. Thus a family with four children hardly pays any tax at all. This concession applies to all citizens, irrespective of how well off they are.

The Ukrainian experiment is also worthy of attention. By substantially raising the one-off payment for the birth of a child to 1,500 dollars, the Ukrainians are waiting for a definite and long awaited baby boom.

We could learn a thing or two from Belarus. When a second child is born, 50 per cent of the rent is paid by the state, and when a third child is born, 70 per cent and when a fourth child is born, the state pays all of the rent.

We do not want to watch our population gradually "shrink", do we? We would like to see our children protected, wouldn't we? If the postulates of Child Protection Day on the 1 June are not simply to be declared on paper, we need to act without delay.

Concessions for the large family category are not envisaged in Azerbaijan's Tax Code. True, there is an article according to which the monthly income, subject to taxation is reduced by 50 manats for one of the married couple who has no less than three dependents irrespective of kinship, including day students up to the age of 23 years.

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Targeted social assistance, which has been 93 manats since 2013, is envisaged in Azerbaijan for needy families. In the event of the income for each member of the family being less than 93 manats, the state, in keeping with the established rules, will make up the necessary sum. There are benefits for children with limited opportunities and for low-income families with a child under the age of one. This does not solve all the problems, but is support provided by the state.