Implementing many measures to prevent child marriage in the mountainous district of Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - As part of solutions to reduce the rate of early marriage and incestuous marriage that is increasing again in Ky Son district, many measures have been implemented by this district.
The rising trend of child marriage
As usual, at the beginning of the new year, the entire political system in the remote district of Ky Son has thoroughly prepared many measures to combat the problem of child marriage. Especially in the context that the number of people getting married early in 2023 in Ky Son has tended to increase, with 229 cases, nearly double that of previous years. Most of the cases of child marriage occur at the beginning of the year, when couples take a break from school to go home for Tet, then meet and get to know each other...
To reduce this problem, right before Tet, the People's Committee of Ky Son district organized a contest to learn about the law on reducing child marriage and incestuous marriage for secondary schools in the area. 18 secondary schools were divided into 5 clusters to organize the contest in the form of dramatization and the teams went through 3 rounds, including: Introduction and skit, multiple choice test on child marriage knowledge, and situation handling round.
The contest contents revolve around issues such as: Understanding the harms and consequences of early marriage and consanguineous marriage; prevention and control solutions; policies and laws related to the Law on Marriage and Family; policies and guidelines of the Party and State on reducing early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas; gender equality in ethnic minority areas; child care and education, etc.
The format of this contest is a new point in the propaganda work aimed at the main target of the problem of early marriage and consanguineous marriage, which are students and teenagers in the district. Knowledge about early marriage and consanguineous marriage will be conveyed and propagated to children through the contest, which is both entertaining and fun, and also a way to learn and compete. From there, approaching and learning about legal knowledge about early marriage and consanguineous marriage becomes easier and easier to absorb. In general, students from schools participating in the contest all expressed excitement and enjoyment with the funny scenes. That is the condition for them to exchange, meet, and share knowledge and skills on preventing early marriage and consanguineous marriage with friends, family and society.
After the contest to learn about the law to reduce child marriage and incestuous marriage, schools have realized the importance of propaganda, proactively organized flag-raising activities and organized the signing of commitments between students and the school on the content of not violating child marriage and incestuous marriage.
In the commitment minutes between students and the school, it clearly states the age of marriage for men and women, the prohibitions and penalties for early marriage and incestuous marriage, the consequences of early marriage and especially incestuous marriage... In particular, it directs students to hypothetical situations such as being forced into early marriage and incestuous marriage. What and how should they do?
Strengthening propaganda and handling
According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan - Head of the Justice Department of Ky Son district, if considering economic conditions, the ethnic groups in Ky Son are not too different, the level of intelligence and education is relatively equal. However, violations of child marriage are concentrated in the Mong ethnic group, showing that the main cause comes from backward customs and practices and concepts of love, marriage and family.
“Currently, many cases of people who are not old enough to get married (still students) fall in love, due to insufficient awareness of marriage and family but still want to get married. In many cases, when going to the boyfriend's house, sometimes intentionally "stepping through the main door" to force the parents to perform a ritual, if the parents do not agree to organize the wedding, they threaten to eat poison ivy to commit suicide, so parents today often have to follow their children's wishes to avoid unfortunate incidents from happening", said Mr. Tuan.
The backward customs and old-fashioned concepts of love, marriage and family have existed for a long time and are deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the Mong people, and are even more evident in families who only work on the fields at home all year round, have little contact with the outside world, and have a difficult economic life. Poverty, backwardness, combined with bad customs and old-fashioned concepts, have made early marriage very difficult to eliminate.
In recent years, a new factor has emerged: the trend of early love due to the influence of social networks and lax family management. Many children have one or both parents working in distant provinces, leaving their children at home with grandparents and relatives. Currently, the whole Ky Son district has nearly 11,000 workers working at home and abroad, among which there are many families where both parents work far away, leaving their children at home to be raised by relatives, so the emotions and education in the family are seriously affected, especially the psychological and physiological development of adolescents. In addition, managing students outside of class hours is difficult.
The leader of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said that in the immediate future, this year and in the coming years, the district will continue to mobilize the entire political system to participate, jointly deploy solutions and specific actions and deeds (not raising issues and finding ways to solve the problem of early marriage). The leaders are interested, responsible, departments, branches, and organizations participating together will certainly have a positive impact. Continue to propagate in many different forms and ways based on assessment, analysis of the current situation, causes and survey results. Propaganda must be widespread but must have a focus, key points, targeting the subjects of violations, especially minors, who are students at junior high schools, high schools, and continuing education schools in the district.
“The district must also gradually improve the economic life of the people. Poverty often goes hand in hand with backwardness. Therefore, when economic conditions improve, people's knowledge will naturally improve, and backward customs and concepts will gradually decrease according to the law of development. Focus on developing culture, society and employment. Regarding culture, we must find ways to reduce and eliminate backward customs and concepts that are deeply ingrained in the subconscious and life of the people, especially in communes where Mong people live. Building a prosperous, progressive and happy family is the source of development for its members, including children, who are the masters of the future. Solving employment goes hand in hand with developing education to improve the quality of human resources,” the leader of the People's Committee of Ky Son district added.
In particular, Ky Son district will punish cases of child marriage violations according to the provisions of law by administrative penalties and criminal proceedings for timely deterrence. In previous years, the district has not imposed administrative penalties, but in 2023, the district directed and instructed communes to strictly punish cases of child marriage violations. When violations have been fully publicized and commitments signed, administrative penalties are absolutely necessary and must be implemented immediately to both deter and be an effective means of propaganda.
