Serbia wants baby boom, couples decline

Give birth, don´t delay!", says a rousing call by the Serbian state to young couples.

"Let babies´ cries be heard!" is another of the baby-making slogans Serbia is busy producing --- while it struggles to increase actual births.

Women say they need better support not words of encouragement to grow the country´s population. Massive emigration coupled with the plummeting birth rate, which at 1.5 children per family is among the lowest in Europe, has brought Serbia´s population down to under seven million people.

According to the United Nations, Serbia´s population is expected to shrink a further 15 percent by 2050.

Desperate to reverse the trend, Serbian officials have made some head-scratching proposals, including a plan announced in June to construct "lower-storey homes" in areas with the lowest birth rates.

President Aleksandar Vucic said it was based on a study that showed couples have nearly double the number of children in two-to-four storey homes than in towering apartment blocks.

The comments befuddled the local press, with one newspaper going on an unsuccessful hunt to find any academic expert who had heard of such a study, discovering only "laughs".

The minister in charge of demographics, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, nevertheless defended the idea that environment can play a role.

"It is a fact that on the edge of big cities where settlements include yards where kids play and parents have a coffee... that kids´ joy and cries could be heard more often," she told AFP. In February, her ministry announced a campaign to tackle the declining numbers and awarded the best pro-birth slogan in a nationwide cash-prize competition.

Among the winners were: "Mum, I don´t want to be alone. Dad, I want a brother" and "Love and babies are what we need first!"

The ministry will also introduce an award called "The Best Family Friend" for companies that support young parents, Djukic Dejanovic said.

A new maternity care law passed last year provides some additional aid for parents who have a third and a fourth child, entitling them to 10 years of 30,000 dinars in monthly support.

That led President Vucic to proclaim: "A mother that gives birth to a third and a fourth child will have 30,000 dinars a month from the state to do nothing... just to give birth."

But critics say the law excludes many would-be mothers.

The full package of state aid for maternity leave is only available to women who have been working without interruption for 18 months. "What about many women who either do unregistered work in the grey economy or volunteer in public service, like doctors or lawyers, without any payment?", asked Tatjana Macura, an opposition MP who has been advocating to change the law on behalf of the NGO "Mame su zakon" (Mums Rule).