Many opinions surrounding the Ministry of Health's birth rate adjustment plan

(Baonghean) - In early 2017, the Ministry of Health asked for opinions on consulting and evaluating the draft Population Law to replace the Population Ordinance. Notably, there is a provision that couples and individuals have the right to decide on the time of childbirth, birth spacing and number of children. Regarding this issue, Nghe An Newspaper asked for opinions from a number of management officials working on population work in the province.

Mr. Nguyen Hien Ngoc - Director of Thanh Chuong District Population and Family Planning Center: "Difficulties in propaganda and mobilization work"

For many years, population work has only promoted small families to build a prosperous and happy family. For Thanh Chuong district, we have also set a goal: Strive for each couple to have only 2 children, properly implementing the Population - Family Planning policy.

Because the propaganda has been “deeply rooted” for a long time and has been supported by the majority of people, if we now “relax” the right to have a third child or more, it will lead to many difficulties in propaganda and mobilization work. It is not excluded that there will be many cases of people using this as an excuse to deliberately have many children.

Deploying population communication campaign in Yen Thanh district

A policy that is not in line with actual conditions will affect the work of population workers. For example, Article 10 of the Population Ordinance. Therefore, if the State makes any changes, it should be clear and specific to facilitate the implementation process for localities.

Moreover, it also avoids population explosion, which would cause all the achievements we have worked hard for over the years to return to zero.

Ms. Ho Thi Thanh - Director of the Center for Population and Family Planning of Thai Hoa town: "In special localities, we should not put too much emphasis on having a third child."

Nghe An province has uneven population distribution, each district and city has different characteristics, so the policy of stopping at 2 children that we have been implementing for a long time is appropriate.

However, in Thai Hoa town, the population is highly educated and the proportion of well-off households is high, so the majority of families want to have more children.

Besides, currently in the town, the birth rate has reached a level approaching 2.1 children, so the issue of having a third child should not be too important. In fact, through many meetings of the industry and the province, we still propose: In our area and some other localities, the issue of focusing on reducing the birth rate is no longer important and should not be included in the annual target.

More importantly, focus on improving population quality.

Talented population officer competition 2016.

For the above reasons, I think that it is appropriate for the Ministry of Health to “relax” the third child in many cases. The allocation of quotas should also be appropriate to the characteristics of each district, city, and town and should take into account the individual factors of each household.

Ms. Le Thi Hoai Chung - Deputy Director of the Department of Health, Head of the Department of Population and Family Planning: "We must be responsible for Nghe An to achieve replacement fertility"

Up to this point, the Ministry of Health has not sent any documents to the localities, so the industry has no official information. However, in my personal opinion, I think the Ministry has reasons to issue the new draft. This, first of all, is to amend and supplement provisions that are no longer suitable according to the current Population Ordinance.

Besides, it also aims to move towards the common goal, develop in accordance with the world's development process, in accordance with international conventions that Vietnam has signed; in accordance with the actual situation when the birth rate is decreasing.

However, when Nghe An is one of the four provinces with the highest birth rate in the country, it is necessary to regulate appropriately and be responsible for mobilizing, promoting and encouraging to achieve the replacement birth rate as set out in 2020. In particular, aiming at families with few children, building a prosperous, equal, progressive, happy and sustainable family.

Song Hoang