Quynh Tho - Increasing the rate of third child births

(Baonghean) -In the winter afternoon, the sea breeze blows even colder, but children in the coastal village of Phu Tho hamlet, Quynh Tho commune (Quynh Luu), about a dozen children of different ages (3 years old, 5 years old, 10 years old...) still play with bamboo sticks at the entrance of the village.

At that time, I looked at the clock, it was only 4 pm, wondering: today is the first day of the week, shouldn't the children be at school at this time? I approached the oldest-looking child, asked, and learned that her name was Trinh. If she hadn't introduced her age, I would have thought Trinh was only about 10 years old, but in fact she was 13 years old this year. She was thin, tall, fair-skinned, and had very bright eyes: "I finished 8th grade, sister. I studied for about 2 months in 9th grade and then dropped out because my parents didn't have money to pay the tuition. My father said that next year, if the sea is good, he would let me continue studying. My two younger siblings haven't had to drop out yet, they are still being sent to school by their parents...".

Trinh's friends are in the same situation as her, all come from large families, poor families, so they dropped out of school. Trinh was born in very different circumstances compared to her friends of the same age. Her mother was in her final year at Quynh Luu 1 High School when she was four months pregnant. Because the fetus was too big, her grandparents on both sides decided to let her parents get married. Trinh's mother took the high school diploma exam, putting aside her dream of becoming a teacher. Now Trinh's father still sticks to the fishing profession, weaving nets during the off-season, while her mother opened a fabric stall at the market. Because the family has many children, the money they make is not enough to cover expenses. Trinh is also weaving nets like her father, earning a few tens of thousands a day. Through Trinh, there are two options for her next year. She can go back to school and can also stay home to weave nets to save up some money to get married. I asked: If you had a choice, which option would you choose? Trinh shook her head and said "I don't know".

Population collaborators advise women on appropriate contraceptive methods.

Saying goodbye to Trinh and the children, I arrived at Ho Thi Sang's house when it was almost dark. Her children were crying and the kitchen was cold. This year, Sang is 39 years old but she looks like a woman over 50. She quickly parked her bicycle against the wall of her house and was very surprised to see us at her house at this hour. At first, she was shy and did not allow us to take pictures, but after a while of talking, she "opened up" about everything. It is known that Sang is currently selling vegetables at the market. Her husband is a fisherman. At only 39 years old, her eldest daughter is married. Because of having many children and a difficult life, her second son dropped out of school to join the work force. What the couple is extremely worried about is not knowing what life will be like in the future while their fifth daughter is just over 1 year old, and she is about to give birth to another child. All of her children have left school, only learning to read and write before having to quit to help the family. Ms. Sang confided: "I also know that having many children is hard, but I have to give birth. Having children is a blessing, a fate...".

The reason why Ms. Sang and her husband had many children in a row was because they were busy making a living. On the day the campaign was launched, she couldn't bear to leave the market. The collaborators came to her house, even to the market to give advice, but they just nodded and said yes. When she got home, she was so worried about her children that she forgot how to use birth control pills. She was given one instruction but applied another. Ms. Sang said: "After giving birth to my fourth child, I had an IUD inserted for 12 years. Because of back pain, I had to remove the IUD. Because I refused to participate in the campaigns and refused to listen to the population collaborators, I thought I was past childbearing age. Who would have thought that as soon as I removed the IUD, I had a fifth child. When my fifth child was 5 months old, the population officers came to my house to encourage me to use birth control. I had to go many times in a month before I agreed, but when I got to the health station, I found out that I was 2 months pregnant and couldn't get an IUD inserted." In Quynh Tho, cases of giving birth to 4 or 5 children are not uncommon. In Phu Tho hamlet alone, the lives of 200 households here are living in poverty, knowing that having many children will make them poorer and more miserable, but they still have a third, fourth child... because they believe that children are a blessing, a destiny. And, the more children, especially sons, the better, because that is the hope of sharing the burden with the family. Moreover, although not saying it, everyone thinks, have more children, to prepare for when the fishing industry encounters risks. The story of Ms. Sang, the story of having many children, having many children in Phu Tho hamlet in particular and Quynh Tho commune in general, violating population policy, living with poverty and illness has become a daily occurrence. Here, nearly half of the households have a third child or more, in some cases, many families have a fifth or sixth child. Also because of having many children, Quynh Tho is on the list of the poorest coastal communes in Quynh Luu. Because of poverty, because of hardship, nearly 20% of Quynh Tho children are malnourished. Notably, the number of densely populated and poor households is mostly concentrated in Catholic families.

Mr. Nguyen Van Luc - Vice Chairman of Quynh Tho Commune People's Committee, worried: "The difficulty of the commune is that people do not accept communication activities, population officers propagate one day, then the next day they abandon it, refusing to implement it, it is even more difficult for parishioners. The commune cannot collect fines because the people are too poor. We need the participation of departments and branches, maybe we can change things...".

The population of Nghe An coastal area is about 1.2 million people, accounting for nearly 40% of the province's population. The third birth rate of the coastal area is approximately 19%, especially in some communes such as Quynh Tho and some other communes in coastal districts, the third birth rate is over 35%. Although in the past time, the communication and consultation work from the province to the district, commune, village, and hamlet has been deeply and intensively propagated, diversifying communication activities, but due to the incomplete awareness of some groups, they are heavily dependent on the old custom of "heaven creates elephants, heaven creates grass; have a son to continue the family line". In addition, the issue of punishment is still taken lightly, currently the State still does not have any provisions clearly stipulating the form of punishment for those who give birth to more children than the prescribed number. In Decision 105/2005, the Provincial People's Committee has set the level of responsibility that families who have a third child or more must pay to the local Population Fund from 500,000 VND to 1 million VND/1 violation. However, that is only the general level of responsibility, depending on local regulations, village and commune conventions. And because there is no specific document giving local authorities the authority to strictly punish families who violate population policies, people still have children while the government still cannot collect any money into the local fund.

I think that party committees and authorities at all levels need to take more drastic action and propose specific solutions and sanctions to handle violations of the Population - Family Planning policy.

Thu Huong