Law

Ky Son remote district replicates family and clan model of no early marriage

Khanh Ly - Thanh Phuc • DNUM_CJZAEZCACF 11:38

With synchronous and drastic solutions to raise awareness and change people's behavior, the remote district of Ky Son has been making efforts to gradually push back child marriage - a violation of the Law on Marriage and Family in the area.

Combining propaganda with administrative sanctions

In the past, in Mong Buoc Mu 2 village, Na Ngoi commune (Ky Son), it was common for boys and girls at the age of "not yet full, not yet worried" to live together. Now, thanks to the promotion of propaganda combined with strict punishment of violations, there is no more child marriage in the village.

Ms. Vu Y Ia - Head of the Women's Union of Buoc Mu 2 village said: People have gradually understood that early marriage not only violates the law but also leads to many consequences in life, affecting the health of mothers and children, so violations should be limited.

In Buoc Mu village, although child marriage still exists, it has decreased significantly. According to the Secretary of the Party Cell of Buoc Mu village, Xong Tong Cho: The village has 131 households, more than 300 people, due to customs and practices, in the past, on average, each year the village had more than ten couples getting married early. In many cases, parents did not agree but were afraid of being strongly discouraged by their children eating poison leaves, so they had to accept it.

Young couples are unemployed and have many children, so their lives cannot end the vicious cycle of poverty. In the past three years, people's awareness has gradually increased, which has limited the situation of underage men and women living together.

In 2024, the village had 4 cases of early marriage, including people from the village marrying men from other villages, or people from other places marrying people from the village. In 2025, there was a case of Xong Ba V. (born 2008), from Buoc Mu village and Lau Y L. (born 2010), from Ca Noi village, studying at Na Ngoi Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, intending to get married.

Having grasped the information, the Village Management Board coordinated with the Women's Union, Na Ngoi Border Guard Station and teachers to successfully propagate and mobilize the young couple not to violate child marriage.

According to Mr. Lau Ba Cha - Judicial Officer of Na Ngoi Commune: The commune is considered a "hot spot" for child marriage, so in recent times, the entire political system of the commune has been involved in propaganda in many forms; combined with reviewing and adding content on preventing child marriage to the village conventions and covenants.

In addition, violations must be strictly handled to increase deterrence. In 2024, the entire commune imposed administrative fines related to early marriage of VND 72 million, some cases were not punished because the parents were working far away.

Concerned about the complicated situation of child marriage in the area, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan - Secretary of the Party Committee of Na Ngoi commune said: In addition to implementing propaganda and signing commitments in schools, in each family, village and hamlet; the commune requires cadres and party members not to attend weddings, engagements, rituals, parties, eating and drinking, performing customs and other forms of wedding organization for cases of child marriage and incestuous marriage.

According to Mr. Tuan, besides the reasons coming from customs, habits, and people's awareness, currently many students have parents working far away, leaving their children to be taken care of by grandparents, while the children all have phones to communicate and interact with each other, so management work is facing many difficulties.

Therefore, after the dialogue conference between the head of the Party Committee, the commune government and the Board of Directors of Na Ngoi Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, the Party Committee of the commune issued conclusions on many contents to build a friendly and happy school, including the content of preventing and combating child marriage and law violations among students.

In Tay Son commune, thanks to the drastic intervention of the Party Committee, government and functional agencies, the "sad lullabies" on the high mountains have not completely ended but have gradually become less frequent.

According to Mr. Vu Ba Re - Vice Chairman of Tay Son Commune People's Committee: The locality especially values ​​the role of Party cell secretaries, village chiefs, clan chiefs, and prestigious people in propaganda and advocacy work to prevent child marriage, bring the Law on Marriage and Family into villages, and gradually change the thinking and awareness of the people.

At the same time, the local government also maintains a propaganda model to prevent and combat child marriage in some villages of Huoi Giang 1, Huoi Giang 2, Dong Duoi... Thanks to that, child marriage is gradually being limited. In 2024, the whole commune had 5 child marriage couples, in 2025 up to now there are 4 couples. All are strictly punished according to the provisions of the law.

It is known that, to prevent child marriage, at the end of 2024, the Party Executive Committee of Ky Son district issued Resolution 06-NQ/HU "On strengthening the leadership of the Party over Party committees and authorities at all levels in the work of preventing and reducing child marriage and consanguineous marriage in Ky Son district in the period of 2024-2030".

Accordingly, the District Party Committee directed the implementation of many solutions to enhance the role and responsibility of Party organizations, unions and the exemplary role of cadres and Party members in eliminating child marriage and incestuous marriage.

On that basis, the People's Committee of Ky Son district issued Plan No. 146/KH-UBND directing communes and units to regularly innovate the content and methods of propaganda on preventing and reducing child marriage. At the same time, promptly and strictly handle cases of violations of legal regulations on marriage and family; violations of the responsibility to set an example of officials, civil servants and public employees on child marriage. Requesting competent agencies to investigate, prosecute and try a number of cases related to child marriage...

According to Mr. Lau Ba Cho - Head of the Justice Department of Ky Son district: In 2024 alone, the whole district organized 47 propaganda conferences on early marriage and consanguineous marriage in 47 villages in 14 communes and 4 propaganda clusters on preventing and combating early marriage at 19 secondary schools for ethnic minorities in the district.

Regarding administrative sanctions, in 2024, the whole district had 127/174 cases of administrative violations in the field of marriage and family being fined with a total amount of more than 294 million VND; In the first quarter of 2025, the Chairmen of the People's Committees of communes and towns administratively sanctioned 49/90 cases of early marriage, with a total amount of 118 million VND...

Thanks to the implementation of synchronous solutions, in the first 3 months of 2025, the rate of child marriage violations in the area decreased by 30% compared to the same period in 2024; some areas have no child marriages such as Bao Thang, Huu Lap, Bao Nam, Pha Danh, My Ly, Keng Du communes...

However, some areas are still complicated, with high rates of child marriage such as Nam Can with 14 cases, Muong Long with 23 cases, Na Ngoi with 16 cases... In which, there are still cases of party members, village and hamlet leaders whose relatives violate child marriage.

Replicating the model of families and clans that do not allow early marriage

To overcome difficulties and push back child marriage and incestuous marriage, localities in Ky Son district have determined to: Continue to focus on disseminating the Law on Marriage and Family, the Law on Gender Equality, the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence, the Penal Code, regulations on administrative sanctions for child marriage in many forms; integrate with the implementation of the National Target Program on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

In early 2025, the Department of Justice of Ky Son district coordinated with the authorities of communes and towns to organize the launching ceremony of the bright spot model "Families, clans, villages without early marriage and incestuous marriage" in many areas such as Truong Son village (Nam Can commune), Hin Pen village (Bao Nam commune), Dinh Son village (Huu Kiem commune)...

At the launching ceremonies, departments and branches organized propaganda and dissemination of legal regulations and consequences of early marriage and incestuous marriage; approved the model's operating regulations; organized household representatives to sign a commitment to implement "Families, clans, villages, and blocks do not have early marriage or incestuous marriage".

Party cell committees, mass organizations, village elders, heads and prestigious people in the community also signed a commitment to include child marriage prevention and control in the criteria for the title "Cultural Family" and "Cultural Village". The model not only raises awareness but also creates a self-management mechanism in the community. The launch of the model demonstrates the strong determination of the Party committees, authorities and people in the work of preventing and combating child marriage.

Mr. Lau Ba Cho - Head of the Justice Department of Ky Son district said: From the pilot models, the People's Committees of communes and towns will proactively replicate the model, especially in areas with complicated developments in child marriage and areas at high risk of child marriage and incestuous marriage. In parallel, reviewing and including the contents of preventing and combating child marriage and incestuous marriage in the conventions and village regulations of each village.

In addition to the model of "Family, clan, village, block without child marriage, incestuous marriage", the district also directed the implementation of other models such as "Youth club without child marriage, dropout", "School without students violating the law on child marriage", "Cadres, civil servants, and public employees of units do not violate child marriage, incestuous marriage" ... gradually changing the thinking and awareness of ethnic people in the area.

In addition, the handling of violations of the Law on Marriage and Family must also be thoroughly handled according to the provisions of Article 58, Decree No. 82/2020/ND-CP dated July 15, 2020 of the Government to create deterrence - Mr. Lau Ba Cho said.