When policy comes into life

(Baonghean) - Building population policies and implementing population policies has been one of the efforts of the population sector for over a year now. Thanks to that, it has contributed significantly to helping our province achieve its plan to reduce the birth rate in 2013...

Just after Tet, it rained continuously for several days, the weather was bitterly cold, but Mr. Tran Van Cuong, population specialist of Hung Dong commune (Vinh city) and his collaborators still did not hesitate to go to people's houses to propagate the issue of family planning. On the way to Mr. Tran Thanh Hung's house in Trung My hamlet, Mr. Cuong shared: Families with conditions like Mr. Hung's have the highest risk of having a third child. Then he calculated that last year, although the number of children born in the commune decreased by more than 30 compared to the previous year, the increase rate of third children was still high. Currently, there are 6 cases of third children or more waiting to give birth in 2014, and there are also quite a few well-off families who have just returned from working abroad and are "bustling" to have children.

Concerned that the risk of population growth would return, before Tet, at the Civil Affairs Conference, the Party Committee of Hung Dong commune thoroughly implemented the population policy to each secretary, block leader, and heads and deputy heads of departments and branches. A quantity of condoms and contraceptives was also received by the commune for population collaborators to distribute to families in early January. Although the solutions have been basically implemented, according to Mr. Cuong: The means can only meet 1/3 of the demand. In order to provide timely supplies to the people, this year the commune has planned to launch the campaign early, in which the budget will increase by 10-15% to purchase more drugs and equipment for contraception. It is expected that the number of people receiving consultation and benefits will increase by 15-20% compared to last year.

People of Anh Son district walk in response to Population Month.

The highlight of the population work in 2013 is Directive 09/CT/TU of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee on continuing to promote population/family planning work in the new situation and Decision 76/2012/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee on some population-family planning policies put into practice. In particular, in 2013, there were many more policies to encourage and motivate localities and individuals who do well in population work and take the lead in implementing family planning measures. That is the increase in the bonus amount for communes and wards that do not have people having a third child with the bonus level nearly tripled compared to the previous period. People of childbearing age who have 1-2 children or more and use sterilization contraceptives are given free surgery, a certain amount of medicine and a health insurance card according to the regulations of the Ministry of Health (duration 2 years), and are supported with money and some services to improve the quality of the population for free such as: health check-ups and pre-marital counseling; heel blood sampling to detect early some congenital diseases in newborns... Those who do a good job of mobilizing are also rewarded with money from the provincial budget. As for part-time population and family planning collaborators in hamlets, blocks, and villages, in addition to receiving the salary according to the regulations of the Central Government, the province also supports an additional monthly allowance of 0.1 of the minimum wage for each person.

In the mountainous district of Con Cuong, where the majority of people are ethnic minorities, the number of people of childbearing age is still high, the awareness of some people is still limited, the failure rate in accepting contraceptive measures is still high, so in recent years, population work has always encountered many difficulties. Therefore, when new policies came into effect, they promptly resolved the long-standing problems in the district. As in signing commitments, in the past, it was not easy to mobilize people to have fewer children and not have more children, because people still believed that "God created elephants and created grass", but after the province issued Directive 09/CT/TU and then Directive 19 - CT/HU, 100% of agencies, units, and schools in the district had their civil servants and public employees sign commitments and considered the strict implementation of population policies as a criterion in the annual emulation ranking assessment. In the communes, in addition to 13/13 communes implementing the commitment for civil servants, the communes also assigned the commitment signing target to the villages and hamlets and included the target of strictly implementing the Population/Family Planning policy in the annual assessment and classification of cultural villages and hamlets. Thanks to that, 95% of couples of childbearing age have signed the commitment. The change was also clearly shown when in 2013, although there were still cases of Party members violating the policy in the province, in Con Cuong district, no cases were detected, the crude birth rate decreased by 1.32%o compared to 2012 - Mr. Nguyen Van Duong, Director of the Population - Family Planning Center of Con Cuong district said.

Thach Ngan Commune, one of the bright spots of Con Cuong District, has seen 7/8 villages in the commune continuously have no third child since 2010. Sharing about this joy, Mr. Luong Minh Thuyen, the commune's population specialist, analyzed: We have promoted many propaganda activities, established third child clubs, and built criteria for cultural families. "Slow and steady wins the race", after a period of participating in activities, people realized that having many children is one of the causes of poverty. Therefore, without anyone telling anyone, everyone is promoting having fewer children to have the conditions to do business, help each other eliminate hunger, and reduce poverty... Thach Ngan is also a rare locality when at the end of 2013, up to 15 households voluntarily wrote a petition to withdraw from poverty. The voluntary decision not to have a third child or the self-awareness of "not being a poor household" is difficult to achieve if it does not come from the awareness of the individual and each family.

Assessing the population work in recent times, especially in 2013 - after a year of "overcoming difficulties to reach the finish line" with many indicators creating outstanding marks such as reducing nearly 2,000 children compared to 2012, reducing 0.77% crude birth rate, reducing the number of children born as the third child or more... Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Hoa - Deputy Director of the Department of Health, Head of the Provincial Department of Population - Family Planning said: The drastic implementation of a number of Population/family planning policies is of great significance, thereby creating changes in the entire political system, political commitment in implementing population policies is strongly strengthened. For example, just implementing Directive 09/CT/TU of the Provincial Party Committee's Trade Office, although it is only the first year of implementation, it has been deployed to 100% of districts, cities, towns, communes, wards and townships with nearly 96% of cadres, party members and nearly 85% of people signing a commitment not to violate.

The achieved figures also show the responsibility and awareness of those who make the commitment. Through the implementation of population policies, many localities have emerged with many good and creative ways to bring population policies closer to people's lives. Tan Ky has "softened" policies and guidelines through skits at the "Understanding Population/Family Planning Policy" Contest. Or like Quy Hop has included criteria for implementing population/family planning policies in the regulations, conventions, and covenants of units, localities, agencies, units, villages, and hamlets. Launching the promotion of the pioneering and exemplary role of party members and cadres in implementing population/family planning policies, considering this a positive factor promoting the propaganda and mobilization of people to respond to and agree to implement the population/family planning policy campaign, voluntarily implementing a family size of only 1-2 children. Nghia Dan district mobilized the Association of the Elderly, the Veterans Association, and the Youth Union to participate in the campaign.

Thus, after a year of impact, the policies on Population - Family Planning of the province have really come into life and have had a positive impact on the entire political system. However, population work still has many difficulties and challenges because although the birth rate has decreased, the total number of children born is still high, the results of implementing the targets are not high, many localities continue to increase the rate of third child birth such as Thanh Chuong, Nghia Dan, Yen Thanh, Con Cuong, Ky Son. The implementation of the province's policies on Population - Family Planning in some localities and units is still limited in effectiveness, some places are still confused, untimely, not serious, not synchronous in handling.

The change of some policies from the Central Government continues to have a great impact on the results of propaganda and mobilization of the masses to implement the Population - Family Planning policy. To overcome the above shortcomings, in the coming time, especially in 2014, propaganda and mobilization work must still be a central task, in which attention must be paid to innovating the content and form of propaganda and mobilization. Strengthen the commitment to implementing population policy among the entire population, especially in remote and isolated areas. Focus on implementing projects and models to improve population quality and population structure, promptly provide reproductive health care and family planning services to all people, improve the quality of services and techniques, create the best conditions for people to enjoy policies and support programs of the State, province and locality.

Article and photos:My Ha