The tragicomedy of 'planning' to 'fail the plan'

(Baonghean) - Recently, the situation of having a third child in ethnic minority communities in Western Nghe An is still quite common, requiring localities to make more efforts in propaganda and mobilizing people to comply with population and family planning policies.

Plan to... "break the plan"

Through a survey, in Que Phong district, from 2014 to present, 343 couples have been found to have a third child or more, but only 181 of these cases have been handled. According to the report of the district People's Committee, backward customs and practices, limited legal awareness of the people, combined with limited funding for population and family planning work, are the main causes leading to violations of population policies, affecting the overall population quality of the locality.

In addition to the above reasons, the report submitted to the Provincial People's Council by the People's Committee of Que Phong district also pointed out that the failure to promptly provide free contraceptives to ethnic minorities, which did not meet the actual needs of users, was one of the reasons why ensuring compliance with population and family planning policies still faced many difficulties.

The Provincial People's Council survey delegation learned about the implementation of population and health support policies in Nghia Long commune (Nghia Dan). Photo: Thu Giang

Meanwhile, in Nghia Dan district, the third child birth rate was still quite high in the period from 2014 to 2016, with more than 1,100 cases of population policy violations being handled. According to Ms. Van Thi Hong Lam - Head of the Nghia Dan District Health Department, this situation occurs not only due to low education level or having only one child, but also because people currently have the mentality of "more children, more wealth".

To prove the level of awareness as well as the ability to quickly access information through many channels of a large number of local people, Ms. Lam cited: "When we just heard the information about the population pyramid reversal, Vietnam is entering the period of aging population, we received phone calls from many people asking "Sister, is it now possible to give birth comfortably?", meaning they updated the information very quickly, very promptly".

From the actual monitoring in Nghia Dan district, the Head of the District Health Department further explained that compared to before, the level of education has improved a lot, but the situation of having a third child is still common because families want to have more children for the purpose of... "prevention". Today's society is increasingly developing, but along with that, negative aspects appear, potentially taking the lives of family members suddenly, such as in cases of traffic accidents, social evils, incurable diseases, etc. Therefore, some couples of childbearing age, although their education level is not low, and have been popularized the population policy - family planning, still plan to "break the plan"!

Role of population collaborator

In general, the localities surveyed by the Provincial People's Council on the implementation of a number of policies to support the population of ethnic minorities all determined that doing a good job in population work would contribute positively to the socio-economic development of each district in particular and the Western region in general, thereby improving people's living standards, raising the quality of the population and creating high-quality human resources to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country.

To continue to effectively implement these policies, Tan Ky District People's Committee recommends that the Central Government should invest more in population and family planning work, especially in communication and project funding. In addition, the district also expressed its wishes, hoping that the Provincial People's Committee would have specific regulations to strictly handle those who have a third child or more, avoiding formal punishments.

Limited education is one of the reasons for the increase in the birth rate of third or more children in Western Nghe An. Photo: Thu Giang

At the same time, most localities agree on the need to further enhance the role of population collaborators and have a mechanism to increase the level of support for those doing this work at the grassroots level. However, each unit has its own proposal. For example, Tan Ky district believes that there should be a mechanism to increase the level of support for population collaborators in hamlets and villages from the current level of 0.1 basic salary coefficient to 0.2 basic salary coefficient.

Meanwhile, at a direct discussion session with the survey team of the Provincial People's Council's Ethnic Minority Committee, a representative of Nghia Dan district said that there should be a mechanism to combine the positions of population collaborator and village health worker, because holding concurrent positions not only increases the level of support, but is also more suitable for practice and promotes higher efficiency. Sharing the same view, Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minority Committee Luong Thanh Hai affirmed that this move is under the authority of the district, and added that the province is encouraging concurrent positions at all levels, reducing people, increasing allowances, and encouraging them to do better.

In short, these are all problems that exist in areas with a large number of ethnic minorities living in the West, arising in the process of implementing population support policies for these subjects. Evaluating the implementation of policies after each stage is necessary, contributing to early identification of difficulties and shortcomings that need to be resolved in practice, providing a basis for people's representatives to study, discuss and propose solutions, and better implement population policies - family planning, especially in midland and mountainous districts.

Thu Giang