In Armenia, opponents of maternity benefits bill demand its revision

Today, in front of the building of the Armenian Parliament, a protest action was held against the amendments to the legislation on paying benefits to mothers. The protesters demanded to revise the bill, since they believe that the amendments violate women's rights.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 25 the government adopted amendments to the law, under which Armenia launched a new system of granting maternity benefits. Now, the allowance is paid out only to working women, but since 2016 it will be paid out to nonworking ones as well. The protesters believe that the authorities should not reduce benefits to working mothers in order to expand the total number of women receiving benefits, but should find some alternative sources of funding.

The today's action was attended by about fifty people.

Mane Tangelyan, one of the protesters, is sure that the above amendments will certainly harm the country. In her opinion, they will trigger a growth of migration.

She added that the officials in charge of the law are excessively manipulating the nonworking women. "No one is against them to also receive benefits, but they shouldn't do it at the expense of working women," said Tangelyan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.