Encouraging births, need long-term solutions on education, health care, housing

Some young people get married but do not have children, choosing to raise pets for fun - Photo: AI illustration

Wards and communes in Ho Chi Minh City are making a list of women who have given birth to two children before the age of 35 so that they can receive a one-time support of VND3 million. This is one of the city's efforts to promote births to cope with the alarmingly low birth rate.

Although the amount is not large, it is a positive signal in the context of the total fertility rate of Ho Chi Minh City in 2024 reaching 1.4 children/woman, very low compared to the replacement fertility rate of 2.1.

Encouraging

Financial support, no matter how small, is still valuable encouragement, especially in the context of young families often struggling with the cost of raising children.

It is a practical encouragement from the state to ensure their natural duty of giving birth and raising children.

However, encouraging births is not simply a short-term financial problem. If we only stop at a one-time support of 3 million VND for people who have 2 children before the age of 35, it is clear that this is not enough to create a big change.

Not to mention, the support level comes with the condition of having 2 children before the age of 35, in which the first payment only applies to cases of having a second child from December 21, 2024 to April 15, 2025.

People cannot proactively plan to have children just to receive a one-time subsidy.

For many young couples, the decision to have a child, especially a second child, is a major turning point, influenced by many complex factors such as income stability, housing, work, childcare time, quality ofeducation , health care for children...

Some opinions suggest that there should be more long-term policies such as supporting and providing free preschool education for children under 6 years old, or subsidizing medical expenses, reducing personal income tax for families with young children...

Pro-natal policies are often comprehensive and long-term support packages that include monthly cash support, social housing, free childcare, maternity leave and flexible working arrangements.

All of these solutions are even more necessary as the cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City is getting higher and higher, making having another child no longer an "encouraged" story, but a problem for the whole family.

...And a problem for the whole family

A society with few children often faces invisible pressures. High living costs, lack of childcare, cramped housing conditions, and work-life imbalances.

Urban women are increasingly delaying or refusing to have children, partly because they do not receive enough support to sustain themselves and their careers after starting a family. This leads to consequences. Population decline, shrinking workforce, overloaded social security systems for the elderly.

Once having children becomes a "burden", no amount of propaganda or subsidies can change behavior without solving the problem of that "burden".

Going beyond short-term financial support, to promote births effectively and sustainably, there needs to be a policy ecosystem closely linked to people's lives, especially pregnant women, giving birth and raising children.

A subsidy of 3 million VND is just the first step, birth promotion needs to be synchronized with policies on education, health care, housing, working environment, and social thinking about the role of women and family in modern times.

National Assembly Representative Nguyen Thien Nhan once emphasized that for a family to have two children, the income of both husband and wife must be enough to support four people.

From there, he proposed switching from "minimum wage" to "living wage" and increasing the family deduction when calculating personal income tax.

This view shows that the gap between income, as reflected in the "minimum wage", and spending, poses a major challenge for workers to make ends meet in large cities.

More than one-off or occasional benefits, what people need is a system that ensures that when they have children, they have the capacity and opportunity to raise them with dignity.

Including improved maternity leave and flexible working arrangements for pregnant and parenting women; non-discriminatory work environments for people with multiple children; quality public preschool education that is free or low-cost; and transparent, accessible social housing policies for young families.

Finally, the policy needs to be updated continuously. With the time frame only applicable to specific subjects, families who have a second child before or after the time frame of December 21, 2024 to April 15, 2025 are not "named".

Instead of having to count and approve support each time, the city should aim for an automatic mechanism similar to regulations on maternity leave, exemption from health insurance for children under 6 years old, etc.

Any citizen who has two children before the age of 35 will be supported, without having to be "lucky" enough to fall into a certain short time frame or make a list.

In addition, there needs to be a mechanism to periodically evaluate the impact of the policy every 6 months to 1 year. From there, adjust the support level, expand the target group or integrate other forms of support such as preferential loans, tuition exemptions, nutritional support for children, etc.

Creating a social behavioral change from postponing childbearing to actively having two children requires more than a monetary incentive. It requires trust.

The belief that when a child is born, there is an entire ecosystem of policies and societies supporting it: from the health system to education, the workplace to housing policy, from government to community.

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PHAM THI VAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khuyen-sinh-can-bai-toan-lau-dai-ve-giao-duc-y-te-nha-o-20250512102408223.htm