Towards eliminating child marriage and incestuous marriage

On July 2, in Hanoi, the Ethnic Committee in collaboration with the Center for Health Communication Development under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations organized a workshop on "Current situation and solutions to reduce early marriage and incestuous marriage among ethnic minorities".

Overview of the workshop. (Photo: PL).

Negative effects of early marriage and incestuous marriage

Citing evidence from the community of 32 Chut households in Rao Tre village, Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh province, due to customs and thinking, only young people in the village get married when many people are not of marriageable age according to the provisions of the Law on Marriage and Family and are directly related. As a result, the Chut people are thin, small, sick quite often, susceptible to infectious diseases, the average life expectancy is only 45 years old... The presentations of scientists and researchers at the conference all pointed out that early marriage is a quite common practice in the ethnic minority communities in our country.

Ethnic minority women living in rural areas of the Northwest, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta are the focus of child marriage and early marriage in Vietnam. For example, in Long Luong commune, Moc Chau district, Son La province, up to 52% of couples get married at the age of 12-17; in Van Ho commune, the rate of child marriage is 68%; the commune with the lowest rate of child marriage is Muoi Noi, Thuan Chau district, also at 27%. The results of a survey by the Center for Communication and Health in the past 3 years also show that the Mong ethnic group has the highest rate of child marriage in the northern mountainous region at 33%, the Thai ethnic group accounts for 23.1%, and the Muong ethnic group accounts for 15.8%.

Poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance are considered both causes and consequences of child marriage. For ethnic minorities, early marriage due to labor needs is an important motivation (accounting for 54%). Early school dropout, early marriage, and early employment are closely related and are consequences of each other; they affect women more than men. In addition, there are other causes such as women's lack of courage and community protection. In Vietnam, the wave of protest against child marriage only appears in functional agencies and organizations that care for girls' health, while in many countries around the world, women themselves and the community have boldly spoken out against child marriage.

Regarding the current status of consanguineous marriage, statistics from the Center for Population Research and Development (General Department of Population - Family Planning, Ministry of Health) show that: Some ethnic groups such as Lo Lo, Ha Nhi, Phu La, Chut, E De, Chu Ru, Si La, Pu Peo, Ro Mam, Brau have a consanguineous marriage rate of 10%. Consanguineous marriage causes serious degradation of the race, newborns have a high rate of deformities or carry serious genetic diseases such as: color blindness, albinism, hemolytic disease, "dwarfism" disease...

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Van Phong - Director of the Institute of Philosophy, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration pointed out 4 consequences of consanguineous marriage and early marriage among ethnic minorities, which are: Negative impact on the country's social progress; negative impact on human resources for development; negative impact on shortening the development gap between mountainous and lowland areas; negative impact on the anthropological development of some ethnic minorities.

From a multidimensional approach to the issue of poverty, Dr. Trinh Thi Kim Ngoc - Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences emphasized: Early marriage and consanguineous marriage have become barriers to the completion of all the millennium goals set by the United Nations, which are: Reducing poverty, universalizing primary education, promoting gender equality, protecting children, improving maternal and child health and fighting against HIV/AIDS.

Need many synchronized solutions

Based on the discussion of existing problems and limitations in early marriage and consanguineous marriage, the delegates all agreed on the point of view: Early marriage and consanguineous marriage are complex social issues leading to many serious consequences. Accordingly, it is recommended that the authorities need to have a comprehensive and fundamental research program on issues related to early marriage and consanguineous marriage in all ethnic minority communities to propose specific solutions to overcome this situation. At the same time, it is necessary to implement the Population and Reproductive Health Strategy for the period 2011 - 2020, focusing on expanding nationwide the intervention programs to reduce early marriage and consanguineous marriage that are being effectively implemented in a number of provinces, prioritizing ethnic minority communities with very small populations and at risk of population quality decline.

Strengthening communication work with diverse and flexible forms to raise awareness of population, marriage and family laws and the consequences of early marriage and consanguineous marriage. On the other hand, because the problem of early marriage and consanguineous marriage mainly occurs in economically disadvantaged areas and areas with small ethnic minorities, it is necessary to implement policies to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, educate and improve people's knowledge, etc.

Dr. Hoang Xuan Luong - Deputy Minister, Vice Chairman of the Ethnic Committee emphasized: "If Vietnamese people are in a "lowland" in terms of health, physical condition, and stature compared to other countries in the world, ethnic minorities are the "lowland" of Vietnam. Overcoming this situation requires implementing many synchronous and long-term solutions". With the responsibility of the state management agency in the field of ethnic affairs, the Ethnic Committee assigned the Department of Ethnic Minorities to be the focal point to coordinate with relevant units to soon develop the Project "Policy to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage among ethnic minorities" and recommend the Government to consider issuing it in 2014 with the aim of eliminating child marriage and consanguineous marriage, towards voluntary, progressive, and legal marriage; educating and propagating ethnic minorities to abandon bad customs, practices, and customary laws that are contrary to the trend of progress, civilization, integration, and development./.

According to (CPV) – LH