The vicious cycle of "rich children - poor property"

(Baonghean) - A small dirt road leads us from Highway 38 to Hamlet 8, Tho Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District, a hamlet known for having many children. Most families in the hamlet have 4-6 children, some families have 9 or 10 children.

Hamlet 8, Tho Thanh has an area of ​​over 1 square kilometer, but there are more than 300 households; of which 2/3 of the households violate the law by having a third child or more. The land is limited and the population is large, making the lives of families with many children, which are already difficult, even more miserable. Taking us to a family with many children in the hamlet, Ms. Pham Thi Truc, a population officer of Tho Thanh commune, said: “Hamlet 8 has many poor households, the reason is because of having many children, lack of land for production and not being able to go to school... Families with 2 to 3 children in the hamlet can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the rest have from 4 to 6 children, even 10 children. Having many children causes many households to fall into poverty, having to work hard for each meal.”

The cramped, shabby house of less than 20 square meters of the family of Ho Van Tuan (born in 1976) and Nguyen Thi Thuy (born in 1977) was built with bricks, just roughly plastered, not yet painted, and is the living place of 8 people. In the house, there seems to be nothing valuable, the objects are all old and damaged. The family has 8 mouths to feed but only 1 sao of rice field, so the husband and the two older children dropped out of school one after another to go to the South to find work to help the family. Looking at the lunch of Thuy's family of 5, we couldn't help but feel sorry... Thuy's 4 children, their faces covered in dust, dirty clothes, sat around, eating deliciously. Ms. Thuy said: "Normal life is already hard, now having many children makes it even harder. The younger children are often sick due to poor nutrition. My husband and two older children work for hire in the South, and after deducting expenses, the money they send home is not much."

Population officers of Dooc May commune (Ky Son) distribute leaflets promoting contraceptive methods to women of childbearing age. Photo: Thanh Hung

According to statistics, in the first 6 months of 2015, Yen Thanh was one of the two localities with the highest third child birth rate in the province: 507 children were the third child or more/more than 2 thousand children born.

Quynh Phuong Ward (Hoang Mai Town) - a locality where up to 50% of the population lives on the sea, although in the past time, the Population Department has made great efforts in advocacy and propaganda work, the rate of giving birth to a third child in the locality is very high. In fact, not giving birth to 3 but giving birth to 4 - 5 children is quite common. The family of Mr. Hoang Van Phuong and Ms. Hoang Thi Vinh in Hong Thai hamlet is only about 40 years old but already has 6 children. The first child is 18 years old, the second child is only 3 years old. The two older children had to drop out of school early to help their parents. Looking at Ms. Vinh, we could not help but feel sad. Her body is thin, haggard, her gait is unsteady, she looks much older than her real age. However, when talking to Mr. Phuong, her husband affirmed: "With many children, poor but still have to continue giving birth. I am the patriarch, working as a seafarer but currently still do not have a son to continue the family line".

In the first 6 months of 2015, Quynh Phuong ward had 235 children born, of which 70 were the third child or more. This reality has caused an overload in education. Only counting preschool level, this new school year Quynh Phuong ward has about more than 400 children entering kindergarten, but the ward's 2 kindergartens are only enough to receive less than 1/2 of the children. Therefore, to have more classrooms, the local government and the school had to renovate the block's cultural houses for teachers and students to temporarily study. Referring to this situation, Mr. Phan Hong Vinh, Vice Chairman of Quynh Phuong Ward People's Committee shared: "This school year, the ward cannot arrange enough classrooms to serve the needs of the people, so the government had to allocate funds to renovate 2 more block's cultural houses for teachers and students to temporarily study. With the current high population growth rate and the birth rate of third children or more, it has negatively affected the socio-economic indicators of the ward".

Having many children, difficult family economy, children working hard, not going to school; causing overload of social security services and especially women giving birth after the age of 35 also leave health complications for mother and child. According to specialist doctor II, Le Thi Hoai Chung, Head of the Provincial Department of Population - Family Planning: "Women, especially those who are old, giving birth to many children greatly affects their reproductive health and are likely to encounter many uncertainties or complications during pregnancy and childbirth such as: high risk of miscarriage, giving birth to children with birth defects; high blood pressure and diabetes can cause serious unexpected health problems for mother and baby. In addition, when giving birth to many children, women's opportunities to access society are also limited, greatly affecting the happiness of their own families".

From the reality in Tho Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) and Quynh Phuong ward (Hoang Mai town), it can be seen that if people do not change their perception: wanting to have many children, having a son, the economic consequences, health consequences and social security consequences will become more severe.

Ngoc Ha

(Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning)