Number of orphans in Russia has nearly doubled

The growth of child orphans and foster children is a strong tendency of modern Russia. The main control department of the head of state came to this decision, as reported to Rosbalt in the press core of the Russian Federation Presidency.

In 1994 there were recorded 496,300 of these children as compared to 867,800 as of 1 January 2003. Along with this, only approximately 10% of this overall number of children without parental support became orphans as a result of the death or disablement of the parents; the rest are social orphans.

One of the causes of the rise in number of such children is the long-standing difficult situation within families. The number of parents who lead an asocial lifestyle increases yearly. In 2003 alone 32,600 parents lost their parental rights, more than 168,800 parents were engaged in administrative responsibility and put on report in police precincts, and 9,000 criminal cases were filed in relation to this category of parents.

The Russian government, as pointed out in the department's report, is not taking measures to increase the responsibility of parents for improper childcare and support.

Each year in the Russian Federation appear more than 120,000 children who runaway from home, become vagrants, take up alcohol and drugs, and become participants and often victims of crimes. In 2003 criminal proceedings were instituted against 145,500 minors, of which 50.9% were students. There are 362,400 teenagers on report in internal affairs departments, and 6,300 of these cannot read or write.