Building a cultural village: Difficult to implement family planning criteria

(Baonghean) - The movement to build Cultural Villages has been widely deployed in residential communities throughout the province, contributing to a clear change in people's lives. However, to achieve the criteria with diverse contents on economy, culture, environment, etc., to be recognized as a Cultural Village and to preserve and promote this title is not easy.

Carpentry village, hamlet 7, Thai Son commune, Do Luong.

Thai Son Commune, Do Luong has 12 hamlets, but only 2 hamlets (10,11) have been recognized as Cultural Villages. It is worth mentioning that, since 1998, no new hamlets have been recognized in this commune. Mr. Nguyen Quang Hoi, Head of the Cultural Committee of Thai Son Commune, admitted that it is very difficult to strive for recognition as a new Cultural Village. The main reason is that most of the hamlets violate the criteria for family planning. Thai Son Commune has 12 hamlets, but currently 8 hamlets have cases of third child birth.

Hop Thanh (Yen Thanh) is a commune with a fairly strong movement to build Cultural Villages, meeting national standards for synchronous cultural and sports institutions. The whole commune currently has 5 Cultural Villages/11 villages; each year, a new Cultural Village is built. However, like Thai Son, most of the villages in Hop Thanh that have been recognized as Cultural Villages are still stuck in implementing criteria on family planning. According to the inspection results, after 2 years of building Cultural Villages in Yen Thanh district, 3/5 Cultural Villages in Hop Thanh have cases of giving birth to a third child or more. There are 3 hamlets striving to build Cultural Villages: Ly Nhan, Dinh Phung, and Chua hamlet, however, these hamlets are also not immune to difficulties in implementing criteria for family planning. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu, on this issue, hamlet units actively carry out coordination activities between departments, branches, and organizations to deploy propaganda and mobilization measures. In addition, the reward for families that implement family planning well and the punishment for those that do not comply well are also implemented seriously. However, there are still individuals with low awareness, causing obstacles in the effort to build the Cultural Village of the hamlet.

Con Cuong district currently has 58/127 villages and hamlets recognized as Cultural Villages. Some Cultural Villages have been maintained for many years, notably: Khe Ran village, Bong Khe commune; Bai Gao village, Chau Khe commune; Thanh Binh village, Thach Ngan commune, Nua village, Yen Khe commune. However, every year, the whole Con Cuong district only recognizes a few more cultural villages and hamlets. Mr. Nguyen Huy Chuong - Head of the Cultural Department of Con Cuong district said: "With the characteristics of difficult life, high proportion of ethnic minorities, people's awareness of family planning is still limited, on the other hand, the issue of security and order and social evils in remote villages and hamlets are barriers in the movement to build and maintain cultural villages and hamlets".

Hong Dien Village, Don Phuc Commune (Con Cuong) was recognized as a Cultural Village in 2008, but in 2013, the village's cultural title was revoked. Hong Dien Village has over 90% of Thai ethnic people living there, and the people's economy is mainly based on agriculture, so it is still difficult. However, the local government still tries to mobilize people to actively participate in the movement to build a Cultural Village by preserving traditional cultural beauty, actively participating in artistic activities; sports, practicing a civilized lifestyle in weddings, funerals, and encouraging 100% of children to go to school... In the past 2 years, Hong Dien Village has violated a number of criteria in the Cultural Village regulations such as: having a third child and a number of new drug addiction cases. Mr. Lang Vi Duc, Chairman of the People's Committee of Don Phuc commune, said that although the local government always maintains propaganda and mobilization work through clubs, and at the same time, strengthens measures to maintain security and order, the mountainous area is complicated, so propaganda and management also face many difficulties.

According to statistics, currently in the whole province, there are over 55% of cultural residential areas out of a total of 5,887 villages, hamlets, and city blocks. However, it can be seen that the number of residential areas achieving the title of Cultural Village increases slowly every year. Because in reality, to achieve the criteria set out in the regulations on building Cultural Villages according to Circular No. 12/2011/ of the Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism, many villages, hamlets, and city blocks are not simple, in which the most difficult criterion is still the family planning criterion.

According to Mr. Phan Huu Loc, Head of the Department of Cultural Lifestyle and Living, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the coming time, in order for the movement to build a cultural life to go deeper and improve its quality, we are drafting regulations on a number of criteria and standards for recognizing the title of cultural villages and hamlets to suit the local situation. Steering committees at all levels need to promote their roles and coordinate with other sectors to effectively direct the movement. Continue to socialize cultural activities, at the same time build typical models and replicate the models.

Dinh Nguyet