Mother Heroine title: Russia to award women who have ten or more children

Moscow, Aug 19: Russian Putin signed a decree on Monday which revived the Soviet-era "Mother Heroine" award for women with 10 children or more. This is seen as an attempt to alleviate the demographic crisis in the country.

The honour was originally introduced by Joseph Stalin after World War II when the Soviet population plunged by tens of millions. The prize was scrapped after the fall of the Soviet Union.

More than 400,000 citizen received this honorary title, but it was scrapped in 1991.

Russian mothers who gave birth to 10 or more children will receive a one-time payment of 1 million rubles (around 13 lakh) when their tenth child urns one. They will only the money if all nine other children are still alive, but there will be some exceptions to those killed by acts of terrorism or in armed conflict.

The winners will also receive gold medals decorated with the Russian flag. The title carried a similar level of prestige to other state orders such as the Hero of Labour and the Hero of Russia, according to The Moscow Times.

Russia has been hit with a decline in birth rate over recent years with the 2022 numbers down by 400,000 to 145.1 million. The rate of decline nearly doubled since 2021 and has tripled since the year before that partly due to COVID-19.