ArmInfo. The problem of demography and the rapidly aging population are still one of Armenia's most pressing problems. This problem did not passed aside the smallest district of Armenia Vayots Dzor.
According to the head of the Vayotsdzor regional agency of the national statistical service Arushan Ghazaryan, according to the population census in 2011, 52.5 thousand people lived in the region, whereas this year this figure is already 50.3 thousand. "The peak of migration came for 2015-16. It was during these years that most people left the region, today the rural population of the region is 32.7 thousand, and the urban population is 17.6 thousand. It is noteworthy that not only external migration is observed in the region, but also internal migration. According to my observations, if earlier there was mass urbanization, then today there is a reverse process. Many people move to the villages, settle down and, thanks to employment in the agricultural sphere, provide their daily daily bread, "Ghazaryan said.
At the same time he highlighted a very important problem of the region, namely the problem of demography. According to him, due to serious migration, today the natural increase in the population in the region is at zero level, and the death rate exceeds the birth rate, that is, the population of the region is rapidly aging. It is noteworthy that a similar picture is observed in all regions of the republic. Ghazaryan said that to date, 19.7% of the region's population are children under 4 years old; 67.3% - from 4 to 65 years; and accordingly 13% of citizens are over 65 years old.
Meanwhile, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan assured that today in his ministry is developing projects that will seriously change the demographic situation in the country in the best direction. "It's no secret that today the situation with demography is of concern to us, but I want to emphasize that this issue is at the center of our attention. To improve the situation, we need to ensure the fulfillment of three important tasks: the first is the increase in the birth rate in the republic because we have the necessary potential and we just need to remove the obstacles, the second is to ensure the mechanical growth of the population. "The President of Armenia set before us the task of bringing the number of people in the short term to 4 million, and today, projects are being developed to fulfill the set goal, and the last is to improve the quality of life of the population of Armenia. "I am deeply convinced that the successful fulfillment of these three tasks will allow us to change the demographic indicators in the country in the most serious way," Asatryan said.
According to the Minister, today one child of childbearing age in Armenia has 1.6 children, meanwhile, it is possible to bring this figure from 2 to 2.2 children. Asatryan stated that, unfortunately, today there is quite a troubling picture in the villages of Armenia, and if earlier there were 2.3 children in the village for one woman of childbearing age, today this figure fell to the level of 1.5. Meanwhile, in the cities the situation is more encouraging, the minister is convinced, since before if one child had 1.6 children, today this figure is 1.65 and there is a small positive dynamics. Asatryan is convinced that if the appropriate favorable conditions are created in the regions-namely, jobs, constant income, then it is possible to improve the indicators by 50%. "One of the projects that will contribute to the increase in the birth rate is the provision of affordable housing for young families, another way, the project of repatriation of our citizens to their homeland will ensure the necessary population growth," the minister said. But, unfortunately, he could not explain how the state intends to return those who have already left the republic, in the majority of cases because of social problems, citizens.
At the same time, the minister assured that one of the most important factors in stimulating the birth rate is the availability of work, stable incomes and the possibility of caring for the child. According to him, one of the steps in this direction is a bill on subsidizing the state money for a nanny, which, if approved by the parliament, will enter into force on January 1, 2018 and according to which, the state will pay up to 55 a month to those who want to return to work thousand AMD, instead of the current 18 thousand. "We will also carry out the certification of each region, city, community, which will identify the existing problems and outline their possible solutions as quickly as possible." We are also concerned about the problem of reproduction, as according to the indicators, the birth of the first child is acute in Armenia today over many years trying to overcome the problem of infertility. If we can solve this issue, we can increase the birthrate by several tens of thousands, "the Minister said.
Meanwhile, a visit to a number of Vayots Dzor communities showed that the most acute problem of these villages today is the lack of normal communication. The villagers have to spend for this 3-5 km of the road from 40 minutes to one hour. So the people of the community of Ger assured that the lack of normal roads creates for them serious obstacles in terms of selling their own products, as the cost of goods increases several times because of the increase in the cost of its delivery to the city. A similar problem was in Zedea's community. Another problem voiced by community residents in the Vayots Dzor Marz is the issue of preschool education, employment of children, the need to go to a neighboring community to high school students to attend high school. So Hasmik Ghazaryan, a resident of Zedea community, told that she decided to leave the city of Yerevan in the late 80's with her parents, because of difficult social conditions. "I got acquainted with my future husband here in Zedea and they came here with my family from Azerbaijan's Nakhijevan in 1988. You know, then there were anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, it was not safe to stay there, we have three children. The problem of communication is acute, as high school students are forced to go to the city of Vayk in high school, in the winter it is very difficult, because the roads are not enough to sweep, so not every transport is able to get here. And on foot to send your child the same unsafe but the children are very tired, and the closure of our school, where only 11 students, will lead to the extinction of the village, since neither family will agree to live where there is not even elementary school, and naturally they will prefer to leave, "Hasmik said.
The conversation with the community residents revealed one important problem, namely, the lack of public confidence in the authorities, the sense of uselessness when a person is left alone with his own problems, and until the authorities solve this important problem, serious demographic changes are not expected.
Note, recently the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the National Academy of Sciences with the support of the Armenian Sociological Association published a monograph "Migration and Depopulation in Armenia." The authors of the monograph are the director of the institute, academician Gevorg POGHOSYAN and his colleagues Irina ARAKELIAN and Vladimir OSIPOV. In an interview with the newspaper "Golos Armenii" Pogosyan noted that the outflow of the population from Armenia is an extremely stable process. "According to our forecasts, coinciding with the forecasts of the UN, the population of Armenia by 2050 under the optimistic scenario will be 2.7 million people, and under the pessimistic scenario - 1.5 million. It is clear that migration as a phenomenon is characteristic of the whole world, moreover, the world developed through migration. It's another matter when in a given country migration takes a threatening character when it comes to the situation that scientists describe as depopulation, "the scientist said. As the main causes of depopulation, Poghosyan called the fall in the birth rate, the aging of the population and the third - its outflow. "In Armenia, over the past 25 years, the birth rate has fallen by half. If in the Soviet period 75-80 thousand children were born in Armenia every year, now this figure is 30-35 thousand. This is a sign of depopulation. The second sign is the aging of the population. When the proportion of people older than 60 starts to grow, this is the demographic indicator of the country is aging. In Armenia, this figure is 12.9%. And the third cause of depopulation is the outflow of population. Over the last quarter century our population has decreased by 33%, "the scientist said.