Social security - a 'fulcrum' to boost birth rate in Vietnam

Many worries when giving birth

On some fanpages sharing stories of young mothers, there are many worries related to economics , balancing work and family life. Most recently, the story of Ms. NTT (27 years old, living in Hanoi), a "breastfeeding mother" in online groups said that she thought and hesitated when returning to work after 6 months of maternity leave.

It is known that Ms. T is a Literature teacher, the couple has a stable income, after a year of marriage, Ms. T decided to get pregnant and give birth. Initially, Ms. T thought that after only 6 months of giving birth, the child would be strong enough, she was ready to return to teaching. After 6 months, looking at her immature child, she struggled a lot to send the child to the grandparents and return to work. T said that she needed to go to work to help with the family income, preparing an economic foundation to take care of the child in the future.

According to statistics, the average number of children of a woman of childbearing age is 1.96 children and the population growth rate is 0.84% ​​in 2023, showing a trend of low fertility. Young people tend to marry late and have fewer children. The average age of Vietnamese women giving birth is increasing. In 2021, the average age of Vietnamese women giving birth was 28.4; by 2024, the age was 28.8, an increase of 0.4 years after three years. This is additional evidence, affirming that Vietnamese women are increasingly tending to give birth later.

Regarding childbirth, sharing with the media, Dr. Mai Xuan Phuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Communication and Education, General Department of Population, now the Department of Population ( Ministry of Health ) said that late childbirth comes from many causes, but mainly economic pressure and the cost of raising children, especially in the context of high living costs and unstable income. Changing social and economic life, a series of risks in employment and marriage make women feel unsafe when giving birth.

According to the General Statistics Office, in 2024, the average monthly income of workers is 7.7 million VND. The cost of raising a child to study for a month is up to tens of millions of VND. Not to mention many other expenses such as medical examination, buying clothes, toys, etc. A basic family with normal wages needs both husband and wife to work to raise their children to study and grow up. Therefore, the mother does not have time to take care of many children at the same time. For young mothers, the cost issue is even more difficult when they have to take maternity leave for at least half a year, and their economy is almost dependent on their family or husband.

Social security, entrepreneurship, economy - "tripod" to help women feel secure in becoming mothers

Currently, maternity benefits and support for women with young children in Vietnam still have certain limitations due to many objective and subjective reasons. The number of women participating in social insurance (SI) is not as expected. According to 2024 data, the rate of SI participants nationwide is about 39.25% compared to the working-age workforce of 18.26 million people. The SI contribution rate for women was about 31.3% in 2019 and is tending to stop participating in SI faster than men. In 2021, Vietnam had about 15 million female workers in the informal sector, accounting for a relatively large number of total female workers.

For the informal sector, if they do not participate in voluntary social insurance, women will not have maternity benefits and will not be fully guaranteed economic and rights (according to the Social Insurance Law 2024 effective from July 1, 2025, female workers participating in voluntary social insurance will enjoy additional maternity benefits). The current informal sector occupations are very diverse, such as: workers, farmers, content creators on social networks, shippers, sports coaches at gyms, etc.

In order for women to take control of their lives and overcome barriers, it is necessary to promote and encourage young women of marriageable and childbearing age to participate in voluntary social insurance. In addition, some social security issues need to be improved, such as the quality of employment and working conditions through strengthening the protection of female workers' rights, especially in the informal sector; subsidizing maternity benefits, improving the quality of health care, education and social protection services.

In addition, women’s economic empowerment needs to be enhanced through programs and projects that support funding for them to start businesses and work. For example, in the context of strong digital transformation, improving women’s digital capacity is a necessary direction. Knowledge and skills in technology will help women access information, expand their business networks and become more confident in the new era.

In recent years, the Vietnam Women's Union has focused on activities to support women in raising awareness, supporting women in starting businesses, developing the economy, building happy families, creating equal opportunities and integration.

Huong Ngoc

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/an-sinh-xa-hoi-diem-tua-de-thuc-day-ty-le-sinh-con-o-viet-nam-post548580.html