02/08/2019 The Ministry of Education will submit a draft law on changing the procedure for the adoption of minors to the Government .
On February 8, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held hearings on the draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Protection of Children's Rights”. The event was attended by Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation T. Yu. Sinyugina.
During her speech, T. Yu. Sinyugina said that the department was ready to submit a bill on changing the procedure for the adoption of minors to the Government.
Over the course of six months, we met several times. And the reason for our meetings was an interested and indifferent conversation and work on the bill, which today is already ready for us to submit it to the Government, - said T. Yu. Sinyugina.
For reference
In December 2018, members of the Interdepartmental Working Group under the Ministry of Education of Russia prepared a draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation on the Protection of Children’s Rights”. The bill was posted on the federal portal of draft regulations for wide public discussion.
The draft law contains new approaches to the transfer of orphans to families, which will allow developing the guardianship institution, improving the conditions for training people who want to take an orphan child into their family.
For the first time, the draft law proposes to introduce the concept of "escort" into federal legislation. It is planned that this authority will be vested in authorized regional authorities and organizations, including NGOs.
Special attention in the document is paid specifically to the adoption procedure, there is added a provision on the procedure for the restoration of adoptive parents in the duties of parents, if they were previously deprived of such an opportunity.
Grisha is Sakhaya Ivanova's fourth child. When the baby was four months old, it turned out that he was seriously ill. It was not possible to make a diagnosis at the place of residence in Yakutsk. But they managed to send him to Moscow to the world-famous Dima Rogachev Center for Children's Hematology, Oncology and Immunology.
How many orphans and disabled children are there in Russia, what are the forms of adoption, what should be the reforms for the prevention of orphanhood, what are the stereotypes of the perception of an orphan, what should be done to adopt a child? Figures and facts.
Walter Langley, The Orphan (1889).
There are about 650,000 orphans and children left without parental care in Russia. At the same time, there were about 100 thousand children in Russian orphanages as of September 2013 (the majority of orphans - more than 500 thousand - are being raised in families).
In Russia, there is a tendency to reduce the number of children left without parental care identified in one year. During 2012, 74 thousand 724 such children were identified (in 2011 - more than 82 thousand).
At the same time, there is a steady downward trend in the number of children placed in foster families. In 2012, 58.8 thousand children were transferred to family forms of placement (in 2011 - 67.5 thousand, in 2009 - 86.6 thousand). On the one hand, this is due to a decrease in the number of children identified annually as left without parental care, as well as a decrease in the number of pupils who are in organizations for orphans and children left without parental care. On the other hand, this may be due to the fact that there are many children with disabilities, teenagers or children with a strong attachment to the birth family left in orphanages. These categories of children are difficult to arrange in families (for comparison: in Ukraine, the number of children transferred to family forms of education is growing every year).
Today in Russia, about 85% of orphans are social orphans, that is, children with living parents (5 years ago this figure was less than 75%). Russia has not yet built a system for working with a child's birth family and preventing social orphanhood. Recently, the first steps in this direction have been taken in Moscow and large cities (for example, in 2013, the Moscow Department of Social Protection developed and adopted the Concept of a model for the prevention of social orphanhood, which, however, has not yet begun to work). Until now, guardianship and guardianship authorities operate within the framework of a binary paradigm: to leave or take a child from the birth family. The system of social services, family support in a difficult life situation has not been developed. There is still a lack of NGOs that are able to take on the functions of helping a particular family.
Among the orphans in orphanages there are 17.5 thousand disabled people. In total, there are 576,000 disabled children in Russia. In most cases, these children are disabled with mental disorders. Although in 2013 the allowance for a disabled child was increased, as well as the amount of the lump sum for those parents who adopt children with disabilities, state support does not cover even one tenth of the needs of such families.
In Russia, the system of secondary education does not meet the needs of disabled children, there is no qualified rehabilitation and medical assistance, and such children are deprived of further social and educational prospects. Disabled people with mild mental or mental disabilities cannot get a job (whereas in developed countries, for example, people with Down syndrome are required to be hired for simple work). Many potential adoptive parents are stopped by the fact that after the death of the adoptive parents (in most cases, the adoptive parents are people of middle and older age), the disabled person is doomed to social death - placement in a psycho-neurological boarding school, where he will be isolated from society until the end of his life and will most likely lose all acquired social skills. The way out of the situation can be the organization of training apartments, private houses for the disabled to live together under the supervision of healthy people, etc.
In connection with the so-called law of Dima Yakovlev (a ban on the adoption of Russian children in the United States), the topic of orphans and their adoption in Russia received wide publicity and attention.
By 2018, the government of the Russian Federation has set the task of halving the number of orphanages. Over the past four years, the number of public orphanages has decreased from 1,770 to 1,344 (data as of May 2013). In Moscow in 2013, state orphanages were focused on the transfer of children to families: each orphanage received an appropriate order, the implementation of which depends on the amount of salaries and further employment of directors of institutions. Within a few years, two types of orphanages are planned to be left in Moscow: small-scale (less than 30 people) and family-type orphanages. In accordance with the presidential decree of December 28, 2012, an item on the proportion of children left without parental care was included in the list of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the activities of the executive authorities of the country's constituent entities.
In 2012, Russia adopted the School of Adoptive Parents program, within the framework of which purposeful work began with those families who intend to take a child into a family. Currently, there are about 50 such schools in Moscow, and they are also open in other regions.
In 2013, a reform of the system of orphanages began in Moscow, where a baby left without parental care is forced to stay until the age of 5. During this time, the child significantly loses in development due to lack of attention, communication and, in fact, through the efforts of the state system, is forcibly protected from all needs, except for vital ones. In Moscow, 7 orphanages were closed, since 2014 it is planned to transfer the remaining 10 institutions under the jurisdiction of the Department of Social Protection (previously they were under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health) and establish the process of promptly transferring children to families there. Unlike Moscow, the problem of orphanages is still relevant for other Russian regions.
In order to avoid a situation with a child being in a medical institution for a long time without attention and supervision, it is necessary to think over a mechanism for the prompt transfer of newborn children to professional foster families. While the issue of the rights of the birth parents is being resolved, the child must live in a professional foster family, which, if necessary (returning the rights to the birth parents), will be obliged to return the child to the birth family.
Photo from http://fishki.net/anti
The procedure for placing a child in a family
In Russia, there are 5 forms of family placement for orphans and children left without parental care:
- adoption;
- guardianship (guardianship);
- creation of a foster family;
- temporary transfer of children to families;
- Establishment of a foster family.
Adoption assumes that all the rights and obligations of an adopted child are equated with the rights and obligations of natural children. In most cases, this form is used when talking about babies.
guardianship- a form of placement of minors under the age of 14 (from 14 to 18 years - guardianship), in which the relevant duties are performed, as a rule, free of charge. Most often, custody of the ward is established by his relatives.
foster family- guardianship or guardianship of a child or children that are carried out under an agreement on a foster family, concluded between the guardianship and guardianship authority and the adoptive parents or foster parent, for the period specified in this agreement. Guardianship authorities are obliged to check and help the foster family. Foster parents receive a monthly remuneration and funds for the maintenance of the child.
Temporary transfer of children to families- transfer of children to families for the period of vacation, weekends or non-working holidays and in other cases for a period of not more than 1 month. As a rule, it is used in emergency cases, while relatives collect documents for guardianship or a foster family.
Patronate form of the device- at the moment it is almost not used. The difference between foster care and guardianship and adoption, first of all, is that this form allows for the selection of families, vocational training and support for the family after the adoption of the child.
Basic requirements for adoptive parents:
- age of majority;
- the absence of cases of restriction of parental rights, removal from duties of a guardian, foster parent, adoptive parent;
- legal capacity;
- no criminal record;
- no medical contraindications;
- a permanent place of residence that meets sanitary standards;
- income that provides the child with a standard of living not lower than the subsistence level;
- preparation for adoption.
Steps to adoption:
– Obtaining the status of a candidate for adoptive parents
– consultation in the guardianship and guardianship authorities;
- training at school for foster parents;
- collection of necessary documents;
- obtaining an opinion on the possibility of being an adoptive parent;
- registration with the guardianship authorities.
— Selection and acquaintance with the child
– acquaintance with the general base of children left without parental care;
- obtaining a referral for acquaintance and acquaintance with the child;
- adoption decision.
- Judgment
- obtaining the conclusion of the guardianship authorities on the advisability of adoption;
- the court's decision;
- preparation of documents.
Problems of placement of children for upbringing in a family
Despite a number of positive changes, the country still lacks an assessment system and qualified control over foster families. Foster parents' schools are limited in their powers and in fact cannot issue negative conclusions about the possibility of placing a child in a family, and guardianship and guardianship authorities are very often not competent enough to adequately resolve this issue. In addition, a system for training specialists in the school of foster parents has not been developed.
As before, many orphanages, especially those for children with disabilities, are semi-closed institutions, where access for volunteers and public organizations is difficult (the exception is Moscow, where state institutions are obliged to admit volunteers). Many state orphanages still have more than 100-200 children, which undermines the idea of individual care and attention in relation to each child.
In the process of adoption the interests of not the child, but of the potential adoptive parent are put at the forefront. The official website, where the federal database for children left without parental care is published, literally assumes the selection of a child by eye color, hair color, etc. The system is built on the principle of a store and proceeds from an attempt to persuade potential parents to take a child, while in world practice a child is not selected for a parent, but on the contrary, a parent is selected for a child. In order to change this approach, you need to rebuild the system, create a database of adoptive parents. A particular child needs to select a parent depending on the individual qualities of the child and his characteristics.
Not many in Russia dare to take orphans to be brought up in a family. Often this is due to stereotypes: a negative attitude towards the fact of adoption of a child, the desire of parents for the obligatory success of their (adopted) child. For various reasons, having a foster child in Russia is considered shameful.. Foster parents in most cases wish to adopt blue-eyed beautiful babies, whom they hope to raise as their own children. Many are not ready for the real situation (most children are teenagers over 10 years old with their sad childhood history or disabled people).
In Russia, the number of children of labor migrants, mostly of non-Slavic origin, is growing every year. Due to problems with documents, the parents of such children do not apply to state institutions, and there is an obvious lack of non-state institutions to help migrant children.
Statistical information is taken from open sources (website usinovite.ru, RIA Novosti, statements by P.A. Astakhov, O.Yu. Golodets, etc.)
The problem of orphanhood, including social, is one of the most urgent in our country. Orphanages and shelters are filled to overflowing. Abandoned children often do not have a place in the orphanage, they are forced to wait in hospitals for a queue.
According to Yelena Mizulina, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Women, Children and Family Affairs, there are 4-5 times more orphans in Russia than in Europe and the United States. According to statistics, the number of abandoned children in Russia now exceeds the post-war period. But there are not so many who want to take children into the family.
Pervouralsk journalist and historian Anatoly Gusev cited interesting statistics in his blog. In the hungry year of 1942, when slightly more than 57 thousand people lived in Pervouralsk, Pervouralsk adopted 21 children. In 2011, there were already about 150 thousand inhabitants in the city, there are almost no barracks, many families have dachas and cars, and only 20 children have been adopted! But out of this twenty citizens of Russia adopted only 12. “Soviet people are over. The Russians are left!” concludes Anatoly Gusev.
Authorities urge Russian citizens to adopt children more actively, for which they propose to encourage them, creating conditions in the country under which citizens of the Russian Federation will adopt children more often than foreigners. In one of his speeches, Vladimir Putin commented on the situation as follows: “I mean, first of all, providing housing, creating conditions for reducing those who adopt them from abroad, and in some near future to reduce this to zero, encouraging accepting children in Russian families.
It seemed that everything was fine, the state supports the family that took the child into the house. This support is quite significant: payment of up to 300,000 rubles upon adoption of a child, issuance of housing certificates, salaries to parents in the amount of up to 17,000 rubles per month for each adopted child, as well as a number of other benefits. In the end, everyone should benefit, including the child, and the society into which this child will enter when he reaches adulthood.
But the special cynicism inherent in our time is manifested in the fact that many citizens decide to take advantage of this opportunity to improve their material well-being! Moreover, foster families have gained particular popularity in rural areas, where wages are much lower than in urban areas, and home gardening requires extra hands, because existing rules allow you to take up to eight children in one foster family! Imagine how many times the income of foster parents increases, who most often do not have elementary pedagogical training.
And how does such a large so-called “family” differ from an orphanage? Surely neither sincere relations, nor manifestations of mutual tenderness, nor sincere conversations. Maybe all this is not enough for children in orphanages, but the latter are staffed not only by professional teachers who are well acquainted with the specifics of working with orphans, but also by psychologists, methodologists, medical workers, etc.
Non-professional adoptive parents, primarily interested in material incentives, are unable to cope with the upbringing of children (especially when they reach a transitional age) and return them back to orphanages. The tragedy of the “twice rejected” children is scary even to imagine. And there are currently (think about) 30 thousand of them in the country! Secondary orphanhood deeply injures children and leads to their moral and mental degradation. Being abandoned for the second time in their lives, children lose their remaining trust in adults and become disillusioned with the institution of the family, they have deepening problems with attachment to loved ones.
Why is the family and, above all, the mother so important for the child? She personifies for the child love, tenderness, safety. It is in the relationship with the mother that the child learns to take care, to love, to express his feelings. Therefore, children who grew up in orphanages cannot establish deep, trusting relationships, often are not able to create a family and raise their children. Even having siblings, the child remains lonely - after all, in orphanages they are divided into different groups according to age, which does not contribute to the establishment of close relationships.
How can a graduate of an orphanage, accustomed to the fact that all decisions are made for him by someone else and he is provided for everything, adapt to life in our capitalist society, where man is by no means a friend to man. But it is encouraging that there are still people who are ready to provide their shelter and their love to an unnecessary child, although they themselves are by no means rich.
If only there were more such self-sacrificing people, then the problem of overcrowding in orphanages would begin to be solved, and the society would grow full-fledged new members, ready to develop and improve this society.
The years of development of the Russian economy in the regime of a liberal system have led to changes not only in economic terms, but also in the field of human capital. The de-ideologization of the country, the undermining of the value base, the decrease in state support for education and healthcare, have led to the fact that Russia has become a leader in terms of indicators reflecting the deterioration of the state of Russian society over the years of its sovereign development.
Here are just some of the Russian anti-records:
57th in Human Development Index
Between Romania (54th place) and Bulgaria (58th place). Top three - Norway, Australia, Switzerland. Belarus is ahead of Russia in this indicator (53rd place). And even Libya, in which there is an armed conflict, is located 2 lines higher (55th place).
129th in life expectancy
She is 68 years old across the country. It is noteworthy that in Iraq and Libya, where wars do not subside, people live longer than in Russia. Of the post-Soviet republics, in this parameter, Russia is ahead of all the Baltic republics, the Slavic republics (Belarus and Ukraine), the Transcaucasian republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), Moldova and Uzbekistan. Life expectancy in Russia is at the level of developing countries, to be more precise, closer to the least developed countries.
1st place in the world in the number of abortions
According to this indicator, Russia is about two times ahead of Romania and Ukraine. In total, 1,012,400 abortions were recorded in Russia in 2013. The annual number of abortions in Russia exceeds 1 million.
1st place in the world in the number of divorces
According to a UN study for 2012, there are 4.5 divorces per thousand citizens of Russia, and in 2012, 644,000 marriages were terminated in the country. One of the main causes of divorce is alcoholism: 39% of men and 50% of women believe that alcohol abuse can destroy their marriage. The second place in this indicator is occupied by Belarus (39 thousand), where the divorce rate (the number of divorces per thousand population) is 4.1.
1st place in the world in terms of the number of orphans, abandoned children and children left without parental care
The total number of children who are classified by official statistics as “orphans and children left without parental care” in Russia as of January 1, 2014 is 630.7 thousand children. Of these: 123.8 thousand are children who have already been adopted (30% of them are transferred to the upbringing of foreign citizens); 396.8 thousand orphans are being raised in families under guardianship (guardianship), 107.8 thousand children are registered in the federal data bank on children left without parental care and need to be placed in a family.
The number of children abandoned by mothers at birth in 2013 is 5,757. In 2013, 46.7 thousand parents were deprived of parental rights. The most common reason for abandonment of children and deprivation of maternal rights is alcoholism.
1st place in oncological diseases
In terms of cancer patients per capita, Russia is next to China. She is a leader in lung and stomach cancer. In 2013, more than 3 million people were registered for malignant neoplasms in Russia. Of these, more than 500 thousand new cases of the disease are registered annually. Russia is also one of the leaders in the number of deaths from cancer; more than 290 thousand people die from cancer in Russia every year.
1st place in the world in terms of the number of patients with mental illness (according to 2007)
If in the world about 15% need psychiatric care, then in Russia their number reaches 25%. Experts note that compared to the 1990s, the number of clients in psychiatric clinics in Russia has almost doubled. The number of people suffering from serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis and epilepsy has increased. And neurotic disorders and depression have acquired the status of mass.
4th in the world in the number of suicides among all ages
In 2012, in Russia, the number of suicides according to WHO was about 32 thousand cases, of which suicide among women was only 18% of cases. The top five world leaders in the absolute number of suicides were India, China, the USA, Russia and Japan. In 2013, in Russia, the number of suicides, according to Rosstat, amounted to 28.8 thousand.
5th in the world for slavery
The Walk Free Foundation has compiled another ranking of countries in which slavery is widespread. The main forms of slavery are considered to be human trafficking, forced labor and forced marriages. According to the report, which covers 167 countries, 35.8 million slaves are currently exploited in the world, of which 1.049 million people are in Russia, which ranked 5th in the ranking after India, China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. These five countries hold 61% of all the world's slaves.
1st place in heroin consumption (2009)
Russia ranks first among all countries in the world in terms of heroin consumption, accounting for 21% of all heroin produced in the world and 5% of all opium-containing drugs. The number of drug addicts in the Russian Federation has increased tenfold over the past ten years.
3rd in absolute number of prisoners
Russia is among the top three states in terms of the number of prisoners, giving way to China and the United States. The number of prisoners in 2013 amounted to 677.3 thousand people. In terms of the number of prisoners per 100,000 people, Russia ranks 9th.
The statistics of Russian anti-records can be continued further. But the fact is obvious: there is a crisis in the value foundations of Russian society, a deterioration in the quality of human capital. And this is the result of a liberal experiment that continues to this day.
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Orphanhood dynamics since 2000
Currently, various ministries, departments and state statistical bodies collect a significant amount of statistical and analytical information related to orphanhood and family distress. However, many of these data are not open, which complicates their analysis and public discussion. Nevertheless, even on the basis of the available statistical data, it is possible to assess the current situation in the field of orphanhood, as well as to trace the direction of the dynamics of ongoing processes.
In Russia, starting from the 1990s and up to the middle of the last decade, the number of orphans and children left without parental care, as well as the number of annually identified orphans, increased (Fig. 2). This is explained, on the one hand, by the significant deterioration in living standards that occurred as a result of the economic crises of the 1990s, which led to the marginalization of certain sections of the population. And on the other hand, the development of a system for identifying families and children in disadvantaged conditions in the same period. However, as can be seen from Fig. 2, since the mid-2000s, these figures in absolute terms have been gradually declining. So, if in 2004 the number of orphans and children left without parental care was 726.9 thousand, then in 2005-2006 it decreased to 726.6 thousand, by 2010 - to 682.9, by 2011 - up to 664.5, and by 2012 - up to 649.6 thousand.
Figure 2. Number of orphans and children left without parental care
A source: data from the collections "Russian Statistical Yearbook", forms 103-RIK
The decrease in absolute indicators of the number of orphans and children left without parental care observed since 2005-2007, however, is not associated with the positive effects of the policy implemented in the field of orphanhood, but with the ongoing reduction in the total number of the child population of Russia as a whole. This is evidenced by the dynamics of the share of orphans and children left without parental care in the total number of children in Russia aged 0 to 17 years. As can be seen from fig. 2, this indicator increased until 2009, when it reached 2.8%, and only after that it began to gradually decrease.
When calculating the total number of orphans and children left without parental care, Rosstat includes in consideration children given up for adoption, as well as those transferred to all types of family forms of placement. This approach is not entirely correct. When given up for adoption, children lose the status of orphans, are legally fully equated with their own children and lose all connection with the system of institutional arrangements and state support for orphans. The situation of children placed in various forms of guardianship, in foster families or family-type orphanages, also differs from the status of those living in institutional institutions - primarily in terms of living conditions, psychological and emotional comfort, opportunities for socialization and adaptation to independent life.
The dynamics of the number of orphans and children left without parental care, minus those given for adoption and transferred to family forms of placement, in comparison with the total number of orphans, is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the absolute number of orphans and children left without parental care in institutions has been gradually decreasing since 2004, while the other two indicators show a downward trend only since 2007. Probably, such a ratio of indicators can be considered as evidence of the gradual institutional changes that have taken place over the past few years in the system of placing orphans, aimed primarily at spreading family forms of placement.
Figure 3. The number of orphans and children left without parental care, taking into account various forms of placement
A source: Russian statistical yearbook for different years.
A distinctive feature of Russian orphanhood is its "social face". The share of biological orphans in the total number of orphans and children left without parental care remains below 20% to date (Fig. 4). From the mid-2000s to 2009, the proportion of biological orphans in the total number of identified orphans was declining, and at the same time their absolute number was declining. Since 2009, against the backdrop of a continuing trend in the dynamics of the absolute number of biological orphans, there has been an increase in their share in the total number of orphans and children left without parental care. This situation is explained by the drop in the total number of orphans noted above. The combination of dynamics of absolute and relative indicators observed in recent years as a whole may indicate the presence of positive changes in the system for identifying families in crisis, the gradual emergence of primary preventive work with families and the prevention of the removal of children.
Figure 4. Share of biological orphans and young children in the total number of annually identified orphans and children left without parental care
A source: Form 103-RIK data.