Nghe An mountainous region reduces births to reduce poverty
(Baonghean) - While the number of births of three or more children in the province continues to increase, in many mountainous districts, the rate of births of three children is decreasing. This is a positive sign that people's awareness has changed a lot and is an important basis for improving population quality.
When perception changes
Mr. Vi Van Lam's family in Lim village, Chau Phong commune (Quy Chau) has only one child. Although they still want to have another daughter to help with housework and "make the family happy", the couple told each other to stop at two children to take care of life. After many years of perseverance, now what Mr. Lam is happiest about is that both children are well-behaved and study well, of which the eldest child has passed the entrance exam to the province's Ethnic Minority High School. The couple also have the conditions to develop the farm economy, growing perennial crops such as acacia and sugarcane, and raising dozens of buffaloes, cows, pigs, etc. for high income, thanks to which they have been able to build a spacious house.
“Every family wants to have many children, but we are afraid of suffering if we have many children. We don’t know how to raise them. If we have few children, they will have the conditions to study properly, and the couple will have more time to take care of their stable economic development.”
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| Elderly Club activities integrated with population and family planning work in Chau Phong commune, Quy Chau district. Photo: My Ha |
Before that, the person who changed Mr. Lam's mind the most was his mother, Mrs. Vi Thi Nham. She herself was a woman with many children, so even though everyone now had their own families, she still felt guilty because she did not have the conditions to send her children to school properly.
Meeting us, Mrs. Vi Thi Nham confided: "Nowadays, people in the mountains do not have many children anymore, it is very hard. I also tell my children not to have many children, having many children is difficult, the economy is not as good as other families." The thoughts of Mrs. Nham's family are also the common thoughts of the majority of people in Chau Phong commune today. Therefore, although it is commune 135, with more than 50% of ethnic minorities, up to now, 100% of women of childbearing age in the commune use contraceptive methods, 10/19 villages have established clubs not to have a third child, male farmers with population work, the commune has 4 villages for 3 consecutive years not to have a third child, the birth rate of a third child has decreased by 1.24%.
In Dong Hop commune (Quy Hop), in recent years, people's awareness of family planning has gradually changed. In Dong Ban hamlet, although it is one of the three hamlets in remote areas of the commune, the village here is prosperous and spacious, and people's lives are quite prosperous and full. This improvement is thanks to the locality's synchronous implementation of many poverty reduction solutions, including the important role of population work. People in the hamlet are also very proud, because although the hamlet is quite crowded with 130 households and over 500 people, for many consecutive years the hamlet has not had anyone giving birth to a third child.
Thanks to having fewer children, families have the conditions to develop their economy and the number of well-off households is also increasing. Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, a population officer of Dong Hop commune, happily said: "To do well in population work, we promote propaganda and mobilization work. In addition, we focus on doing well in health care - family planning campaigns. Currently, the whole commune has nearly 2,000 households of childbearing age implementing contraceptive measures, people are well aware of having fewer children to take care of their families and raise their children well. Even at this time, although the National Target Program on population policy has been cut a lot, people are still conscious of buying and using contraceptives regularly, no longer waiting and relying like before."
“To do a good job in population work in the area, we identify communication as the top priority task with the goal of achieving small, healthy families, stabilizing the population size at a reasonable level to have a prosperous, equal, progressive, happy life and gradually improve the quality of the population. This also aims to gradually change behavior and raise awareness of population work - family planning”.
Bright spots in population work
Although the country has reached the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 children/woman, Nghe An's fertility rate is still high at 2.75 children, ranking second in the country. This poses many challenges in current population work, especially when the third birth rate in the whole province is still very high, accounting for over 23%.
In particular, in many coastal districts, this rate is over 28%. However, besides the common difficulties, a very positive signal is that in the past few years, the rate of third births in some mountainous districts has decreased compared to the general level.
For example, in Quy Chau district, in 2019, the birth rate of the third child or more was 17.5%, Que Phong was 16.46% and Tuong Duong was only 14.7%... The number of communes, villages and hamlets without people giving birth to the third child or more is also increasing, in which, the number of communes commended by the Provincial People's Committee for having a birth rate of the third child reduced by 50% or more is concentrated in mountainous districts such as Nghia Binh commune (Nghia Dan), Don Phuc commune, Con Cuong town (Con Cuong), Chau Kim, Dong Van, Chau Thon communes (Que Phong), Muong Ai commune (Ky Son), Chau Loc, Nam Son communes (Quy Hop), Thach Giam, Yen Tinh communes (Tuong Duong).
Notably, in the past 5 years, Nghe An has only had 2 communes with no people giving birth to a third child or more, and both are in mountainous districts, namely Ngoc Lam commune (Thanh Chuong) and Yen Thang commune (Tuong Duong).
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| Village elders of Cha Luan village (now merged with Kim Lien, Xop Pe to form Tan Lam village - Thanh Chuong) encourage villagers to properly implement the Population and Family Planning Policy. Photo: Cong Khang |
To achieve these successes, in recent years, mountainous districts have done a good job of propaganda and mobilization with many practical contents and forms such as organizing thematic talks, small group communication, distributing leaflets, and implementing campaigns to promote the integration of reproductive health care/family planning services.
In addition, localities have also strengthened the review, monitoring, and grasping of the number of couples of childbearing age, the number of people giving birth to a third child and those at risk of giving birth to a third child or more, in order to have measures to communicate, advise, and mobilize the implementation of family planning measures. Through proactively and widely disseminating policies and measures on family planning, to make everyone, first of all those of childbearing age, understand the necessity and benefits of family planning and practice small families. Thereby creating a change in the awareness of cadres, party members and people about Population - Family Planning, overcoming rapid population growth, and gradually improving population quality.
“Not only has the birth rate decreased, but people's awareness of reproductive health care and family planning in mountainous districts has also improved, especially in terms of pregnancy check-ups, prenatal and newborn screening, and regular pregnancy check-ups... In addition, because in mountainous districts people mainly give birth naturally, there is no gender imbalance at birth. In many localities, the rate of girls is even much higher than that of boys, which is a very positive sign. In the long term, the birth rate reduction will also be a good premise for mountainous districts to gradually improve the quality of the population, improve their lives, and move towards hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and building a prosperous and happy life.”
