Interfax: Russia has fewer orphans but too few of them find new families – Astakhov

File Photo of Russian Orphans with Mr. and Mrs. Dmitry Medvedev

MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – Russia has fewer children without parents – the number of orphans registered yearly dropped 40%, Russian children’s rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said.

At the same time, the number of children in orphanages is “unacceptably high,” Astakhov said.

The commissioner spoke at an all-Russian congress of orphanage heads on Tuesday.

Russian courts rule less often in favor of removing children from troubled families, Astakhov said. “Instead of terminating parental rights, milder, but not less efficient methods such as limiting parental rights, are used more often,” he said.

Such statistics show that “the authorities treat more responsibly the issue of terminating parental rights and removing children from biological families,” Astakhov said.

In the past six year the number of education facilities for children without parental care decreased almost by quarter, from 1,770 to 1,344, and the number of children living there dropped over 30% from 123,000 to 79,800 children. But it is bad that “every third or fourth child that is registered as an orphan becomes a ‘state’ child and is placed in an orphanage-type facility,” the commissioner said.

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