We need strong "pushs" - Part 1: Difficulties piled upon difficulties

Việt Nam•27/03/2024

Reducing information poverty for ethnic minority and mountainous regions:

(QBĐT) - Information and communication play a crucial role in improving the effectiveness of poverty reduction efforts. However, in reality, in some localities within the province, especially in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, poverty reduction efforts related to information access still face numerous obstacles and challenges. Therefore, specific and practical solutions to reduce information poverty among ethnic minorities need to be further promoted to contribute to achieving the goal of multidimensional, inclusive, and sustainable poverty reduction, and to prevent the recurrence and emergence of new poverty.

Difficult transportation, remote locations, low levels of education, limited public awareness, and inadequate infrastructure are all obstacles to implementing poverty reduction programs in ethnic minority and mountainous regions. These barriers are posing significant challenges to the sustainable poverty reduction roadmap in these areas.

Contact by letter

Today, with the development of communication technologies, writing letters by hand, which once seemed like something from ten or fifteen years ago, a "backward era," is still a story of the "present continuing" in Doong village, Tan Trach commune (Bo Trach district). This stems from the isolation in transportation and the hardships faced by the local people.

Information shortages and limited access to information are obstacles on the path to sustainable poverty reduction in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

According to Nguyen Van Dai, Secretary of the Tan Trach Commune Party Committee: Currently, 11 households with 54 people in Doong village are still living in a state of "five lacks": no electricity, no power station, no market, no television signal, and no telephone signal. The people here live in isolation amidst the rugged Truong Son mountain range. Vehicles cannot reach the village, so the only way to get there is to walk for more than two hours. Remarkably, while the people of neighboring village 39 already have electricity connected to their residential area, in Doong village, that remains a dream.

“Previously, Doong village also had a solar power system, but this system depended on weather conditions and had deteriorated, resulting in very poor performance. To have electricity, some households here invested in generators, but the cost of gasoline was quite high, so they used them very sparingly. The village also received support to install a solar-powered transmission tower from Viettel , but after more than 3 years of use, it has deteriorated, and the signal quality is very poor, sometimes working, sometimes not. When we needed to discuss matters with village officials and couldn't contact them by phone, we had to walk all the way there to meet them or write handwritten letters to ask forest rangers to deliver them. Those handwritten letters kept piling up over time,” Mr. Dai shared.

Without electricity, without phone signal, and with difficult transportation, connecting with local people is challenging, making it very difficult to disseminate important policies and guidelines to the villagers. And when communication and persuasion are limited, changing the people's perceptions and mindset becomes extremely difficult. Poverty and hardship thus cling to the lives of the people from one generation to the next. "The whole village has 11 households, but 6 are poor, 1 is near-poor, and the rest are all in difficult circumstances," Mr. Dai said.

From material poverty… to intellectual poverty.

After more than 8 years of separating their household registration and moving out to live independently, the four members of the family of Ms. Ho Thi Dung and Mr. Ho Tan (both born in 1998) in Hang Chuon-Na Lam village, Truong Xuan commune ( Quang Ninh province) still crowd into a dilapidated, leaky makeshift house that, at first glance, many would mistake for a temporary shack. Their only means of communication is an old mobile phone that the couple shares, which Mr. Tan takes with him when he goes to work.

When asked if they regularly follow the news, information on TV, newspapers, and social media, they both shook their heads. “We don’t have a TV at home, and we only use our phones for calls when necessary. If we want to go online to read newspapers or watch news, we have to subscribe to 4G, which costs a considerable amount of money each month, so we don’t subscribe. Having a phone to communicate is good enough!” Ms. Dung shared.

Like Ms. Dung and Mr. Tan, most people in Hang Chuon-Na Lam village are accustomed to a life without television or internet. Their lives revolve around their small village. According to Village Head Ho Van Men, the village has 68 households and 227 people, of which 40 are poor, 15 are near-poor, and only 4-5 households in the entire village own televisions, and less than a third of the population has smartphones.

In particular, in the Na Lam residential area, transportation remains very difficult, and there is no electricity. Therefore, many households have moved to the Hang Chuon area temporarily for the convenience of their children's schooling, while about 3 households with 8 people still remain. "The roads are remote, and coupled with the lack of infrastructure, information and communication work here faces many difficulties. The awareness of the people is also limited. Many people, although they have televisions and smartphones, don't use them to watch news or access necessary and useful information!" Mr. Men said.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications Hoang Thanh Hien: Information deprivation is one of the six multidimensional poverty reduction goals for the 2021-2025 period (including employment, health, education , housing, clean water, and information). In particular, the lack of information among ethnic minorities, people living in remote areas, border regions, and islands is assessed based on two criteria: use of telecommunication services (households with no members using internet services) and assets for accessing information (households lacking any of the following means for accessing information: shared means including television, radio, desktop computer, telephone; personal means including laptop, tablet, smartphone).

According to Vo Thanh Dong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Truong Xuan commune, the majority of people in Hang Chuon-Na Lam village still harbor a mindset of waiting and relying on others.

Despite receiving equal attention and support, while people in other villages have embraced innovative thinking and boldly invested in production and livestock farming to improve their quality of life, the people in Hang Chuon-Na Lam village still harbor a complacent attitude and lack the will to strive for improvement. This explains why, out of 140 poor households in the entire commune (5 villages, 4 hamlets), Hang Chuon-Na Lam village alone accounts for 40 households.

Information shortages and limited access to information are significant obstacles on the path to sustainable poverty reduction in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, with Hang Chuon-Na Lam village (Truong Xuan commune) and Doong village (Tan Trach commune) being just two examples. Although the Party and State have implemented many policies to develop the economy of ethnic minority and mountainous regions, the ability of ethnic minorities to access and enjoy basic social services remains limited, and poverty reduction in these disadvantaged areas continues to be a challenging problem.

Peace of Mind

>>> Lesson 2: Finding the solution to the "difficult problem"

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