The State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children intends to initiate the development of a bill that provides for the introduction of free travel on public transport for children aged seven to 16 years.

RIA Novosti was told about this by the head of the committee, Nina Ostanina.

The current legislation provides such an opportunity only for children under seven years old.

At the same time, in March 2021, a law came into force that prohibits forcibly disembarking adolescents under 16 years of age from transport for unpaid travel if they are traveling unaccompanied by adults.

According to Ostanina, an initiative was submitted to the State Duma in May this year, within the framework of which, in particular, it was proposed to introduce a single free travel document for this category of Russians, giving the right to an unlimited number of trips.

The State Duma Committee on Family Issues acted as a co-executor of the project, but the document in its current version received a negative opinion of the Cabinet.

"We do not want to lose this law, therefore, for the next budget, already in 2023, we will propose amendments ... Our committee wants to initiate the development of a new bill with the same idea, with the same name, but taking into account legal developments with the regions." , - said Ostanina.

According to her, the parliamentarians intend to ask the regional authorities about the expenses for the implementation of the initiative, since the previous document did not take into account this issue.

The MP expressed confidence that the governors will respond to the initiative.

“Today, the subjects independently solve these problems - somewhere orders, somewhere social cards, that is, whoever can.

And we will summarize the materials, submit them to the government and try to convince them that this money should be allocated from the federal budget, ”she said.

Commenting on the new initiative of the State Duma, the chairman of the public movement Union of Fathers of Russia, Yuri Solenov, expressed the opinion that providing free travel for teenagers under 16 is the right decision that should have been made long ago.

“This is a great support for large families, for families where a child is brought up only with his mother or only with his father.

So I hope that everything will come true.

And those critical moments that arose when the conductors were kicked out of the buses, including in the cold, will no longer arise, "said the interlocutor of RT.

In turn, Natalia Agra, Deputy Chair of the Social Policy Committee of the Public Chamber, expressed the opinion that support for families with children should be extended to other areas.

“The initiative is, of course, wonderful in terms of supporting families and children.

On the other hand, it seems to me that now it is very important from an economic point of view to give children some kind of opportunity to earn money.

Because if we say that we are trying to provide them with free travel, then we are talking about the fact that families do not actually have the means to support their children, ”she said in a conversation with RT.

According to her, you need to strive to help families with children find work and earn money, or improve legislation so that children can also earn money.

“The state has been doing a lot lately.

These are various payments for younger children and teenagers.

But in principle, everything says that you need to give not only fish, you need to give a fishing rod.

It seems to me that it would be much more useful, ”says Agra.

We add that at the end of October, Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Tatarstan, founder of the National Parents' Committee Irina Volynets proposed to make free travel on all types of city transport for large families throughout the country.

Volynets drew attention to new measures to support large families, which will begin to operate in Moscow from January 1, 2022.

She suggested extending the relevant practice to the whole of Russia.