So that there are no more sad lullabies in the highlands
(Baonghean) - Recently, Nghe An Newspaper has published a series of articles reflecting on the alarming situation of students dropping out of school, including many cases of early marriage, putting aside their studies to get married. To understand this issue, Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Phan Van Hue - Deputy Head of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning.
PV: First, could you please give us an overview of the situation of child marriage in Nghe An province recently?
Doctor Phan Van Hue:It can be said that early marriage andincestuous marriageNot only does it go against Vietnamese customs and traditions, it also violates the law and, more dangerously, leaves unpredictable consequences for families, society, and future generations.
Faced with the current widespread situation of early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas, the Prime Minister approved the project "Reducing the situation of early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas in the period 2015-2025" in Decision No. 498/QD-TTg dated April 14, 2015 and assigned the Ethnic Committee to preside over the organization and guidance of implementation. With the goal of basically preventing and repelling early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas by 2025, contributing to improving the quality of population and human resources in ethnic minority areas.
Based on the guidance of the Central Committee for Ethnic Minorities, the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue Plan No. 599/KH-UBND dated October 1, 2015 on the implementation of the Project "Reducing child marriage and incestuous marriage in ethnic minority areas of Nghe An province in the period of 2015-2020".
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| Doctor Phan Van Hue. Photo: Tien Hung |
After 5 years of implementing the Project, in general, the situation of early marriage and consanguineous marriage in the province has had quite positive changes. However, the current situation is still quite complicated. Specifically, the total number of early marriage couples (both husband and wife) has decreased from 76 couples in 2015 to 65 couples in 2019, a decrease of 11 couples. However, the number of early marriage couples with only one side (wife or husband is not old enough to get married) has increased, in 2016 there were only 99 couples but by 2019 it had increased to 115 couples. In particular, the situation of students dropping out of school to get married has tended to increase recently, as reported by Nghe An Newspaper.
In my opinion, in fact, the numberearly marriage, as well as incestuous marriages are much larger than the figures provided by the Ethnic Committee. Because of the relationship with achievements, many localities and ethnic boarding schools have a situation of concealing and not fully recording the cases of early marriage. Meanwhile, the Ethnic Committee does not have a network down to each facility to be able to grasp accurate information.
PV: In which localities does child marriage often occur, sir?
Doctor Phan Van Hue:According to ethnic composition, child marriage occurs mainly among the Mong people, especially in border areas, poor, deprived, lacking electricity, lacking information. Next is the Khmu ethnic group and the remaining minority is the Thai ethnic group. Regarding the situation of consanguineous marriage, it only occurs among the Mong people and the Dan Lan ethnic group (in Mon Son commune, Con Cuong district) and the O Du ethnic group (Tuong Duong). If according to locality, Ky Son district is always the "hot spot" of this situation.
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| Recently, the situation of child marriage has become complicated in mountainous districts. Photo: Tien Hung |
PV: According to you, what are the causes leading to this situation?early marriagehave high rates in these areas?
The first,due to the heavy influence of backward concepts, customs and practices of ethnic minorities, especially in remote and border areas. Families force their children to get married at a very young age, to help the family and do more farming work, taking care of daily life. People do not understand that this is a violation of the law.
Monday,Because this is an economically disadvantaged area, there is a lack of jobs, the main economic activity is farming, so there is a lot of free time leading to early love and early marriage.
Tuesday,Due to the fact that sex education, information provision, knowledge on reproductive health care/family planning, and life skills for adolescents and young people in ethnic minority areas have not been well implemented in the recent past, leading to premarital sex and unwanted pregnancies, which can easily lead to dropping out of school to get married early. This is also an objective cause leading to the situation of early marriage and incestuous marriage that is quite common today.
Wednesday,Due to the laxity of the law, the sanctions for violations of marriage are not strong enough to prevent and deter early marriage and incestuous marriage. In addition, the work of propaganda and mobilization of people on the issue of early marriage and incestuous marriage is not carried out regularly and ineffectively;
Thursday,The direction and coordination to prevent child marriage among Party committees, local authorities and departments, branches, and organizations... are not close, not regular and are slow in updating information on the situation of child marriage and incestuous marriage. There are cases where couples who have had a wedding ceremony and have not yet obtained a birth certificate for their child, the local authorities only then receive the information, and then send officials to propagate and remind. This shows that the intervention from local authorities is not resolute, and at times the local authorities are even confused and lack effective measures to deal with child marriage or when they know that there is incestuous marriage; there are even cases where officials and party members violate the law and lack exemplary behavior for the people to follow.
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| Bung village in Mon Son commune, one of the "hot spots" for early marriage and incestuous marriage. Photo: Tien Hung |
Pv: What about the issue of incestuous marriage, sir?
Doctor Phan Van Hue:The consequences of incestuous marriage are reduced health, increased rates of diseases caused by gene combinations, and degradation of the quality of the race. Children born to parents with incestuous marriages are at risk of genetic diseases, illness, and poor health, because incestuous marriages are favorable conditions for similar recessive disease genes to meet. In addition to the consequences of poor health, incestuous marriages also have a negative impact on culture and family ethics, disrupt existing relationships between clans and families, and erode and change the good traditional cultural values of the nation.
Incestuous marriages occur most frequently among the Mong people. According to Mong customs, the husband and wife must have different surnames and only need to have different surnames. Therefore, brothers and sisters can also be in-laws because they have different surnames. This leads to many cases where the children of older sisters and younger sisters marry each other.
In addition, incestuous marriage also occurs in ethnic minority communities such as the O Du and Dan Lai. These are ethnic groups that live almost in isolation. So when young people grow up, they have no choice but to marry within their own village. It is difficult to approach the surrounding communities, so it is inevitable that relatives marry each other. In addition, some cases of incestuous marriage occur due to the highland people's concept of "wanting to keep their property". They only want to marry relatives, because they do not want to share their property with outsiders.
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| Isolated life is also the cause of incestuous marriage. Photo: Tien Hung |
PV: Can you tell us how the problem of child marriage affects us?
Doctor Phan Van Hue:Early marriage, pregnancy and childbearing in the same generationadolescenceWhen the mother's body is not fully developed, lack of knowledge, experience and psychological readiness to get pregnant and give birth, it greatly affects the mother's health; the normal development of the fetus and newborn. This is one of the reasons for doubling the rate of malnutrition in children under 5 years old, being underweight and stunted; increasing the mortality rate in children under 1 year old and under 5 years old. Increase in maternal mortality related to pregnancy.
In reality, in the districts, most of the families who marry early often have difficult and poor lives. The couples who marry early usually voluntarily live together as husband and wife with the consent of both families. Among the couples who marry early, the number of divorced couples who leave their children with their biological parents is relatively high.
In fact, in localities with high poverty rates, child marriage and incestuous marriage are also on the rise. Child marriage and incestuous marriage are both causes and consequences of poverty, illiteracy and a decline in the quality of life.
PV: In your opinion, what are the most effective solutions to prevent this problem?
Doctor Phan Van Hue:Preventing and repelling child marriage and consanguineous marriage in general, and in ethnic minority areas in particular, is the responsibility of each individual, family and community. In my opinion, to minimize this situation, the most optimal solution is propaganda, thereby gradually changing people's awareness. The target of propaganda must focus on students. These are the most receptive elements, and are also the direct target. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen education for children from school, so that they can gradually change customs and practices for the whole community.
Promote the role of the Fatherland Front, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Women's Union, socio-political organizations, village elders, village chiefs, and prestigious people in ethnic minority areas to participate in propagating and mobilizing people to eliminate backward customs and prevent early marriage and incestuous marriage.
It is necessary to attach responsibility to village chiefs and local authorities in places where this situation occurs. Build village and hamlet conventions that do not violate the law on marriage and family. Organize annual signing of commitments between villages and the People's Committee; avoid the situation where when the government discovers it, it is considered "a done deal". What should be done when families intend to let their children get married before the legal age, the government and organizations must know in advance to directly meet and provide legal advice, mobilize, propagate, and prevent it from the beginning.
PV: Thank you!
Nghe An strives to limit child marriage among ethnic minorities
(Baonghean.vn) - Child marriage is quite common among ethnic minorities in Nghe An. Child marriage causes many people to lose the opportunity to study and work, reduces the quality of the population and affects the health of mothers and children. In the program "People ask - authorities answer", Mr. Nguyen Tam Long - Head of the Ethnic Policy Department - Provincial Ethnic Committee has just discussed more clearly about this issue.