Research on financial support for women who give birth to two children before age 35 at higher levels

Examining the draft Law on Population, Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh proposed to study regulations in the direction of financial support for women who give birth to two children, in which the group of women who give birth to two children before the age of 35 will receive a higher level of support.

Provincial local authorities proactively and flexibly implement policies and measures to maintain replacement fertility levels.

Presenting the Report on the Population Law Project, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan stated that the promulgation of the Population Law aims to create a unified and synchronous legal basis to contribute to institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, policies and strategies on population and overcoming limitations and shortcomings; meeting the requirements of population development work in the new situation.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan presents the Report on the draft Population Law. Photo: Ho Long

The Draft Law consists of 8 chapters and 28 articles, regulating: communication, mobilization, and education about population; population size, structure, and distribution; policies to adapt to population aging and aging population; policies to improve population quality; conditions to ensure implementation of population work, etc.

View of the meeting. Photo: Pham Thang

Regarding decentralization and delegation of power, the draft Law stipulates the responsibility of local authorities at the provincial level in deciding on a number of proactive and flexible measures to implement policies and measures to maintain replacement fertility, reduce gender imbalance at birth and bring the sex ratio at birth back to a natural balance based on the population situation and dynamics; proactively plan the budget and time to apply measures to implement according to the State Budget Law, in accordance with the local socio-economic situation.

Research has comprehensive, fundamental and holistic measures to achieve sustainable replacement fertility.

Examining this content, Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh stated that the draft Law has institutionalized the Party's policies and guidelines on population work, in accordance with the Constitution, basically ensuring unity and synchronization in the legal system, and compatibility with relevant international treaties. The draft Law dossier basically ensures compliance with regulations.

In addition, the Committee on Culture and Society requested the drafting agency to continue to review, supplement, update, and ensure consistency between the Submission, the draft Law, and the component reports of the Law project; continue to carefully assess the impact of policies and funding to ensure the implementation of policies and international experiences to apply appropriately to the practical conditions of Vietnam; continue to review the content of the draft Law with current laws as well as related draft laws in the process of amendment and supplementation to ensure consistency and synchronization in the legal system.

Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh presents the Report on the review of the draft Law. Photo: Ho Long

The Committee proposed to add 1 article regulating the State's policy on population work in the General Provisions Chapter; demonstrating the overall policy framework guiding population work (such as ensuring living conditions, housing, education, health care) on the basis of closely following Resolution No. 21 and Resolution No. 72, institutionalizing the viewpoint of shifting the focus of population policy from family planning to population and development.

Regarding maintaining the replacement fertility rate (Article 13), the Committee recommends studying comprehensive, fundamental measures to achieve a sustainable replacement fertility rate; studying regulations in the direction of financial support for women who give birth to two children, in which the group of women who give birth to two children before the age of 35 will receive a higher level of support; clarifying the criteria for "localities with low fertility rates"; continuing to review, amend and supplement the Housing Law to ensure the feasibility of regulations on giving priority to buying or renting social housing for certain groups of subjects; supplementing regulations on the Government periodically announcing the fertility rate status so that local authorities can develop and implement appropriate support and incentive policies; in case the fertility rate of some localities drops to a very low level, the Government will report and propose to the National Assembly timely intervention measures.

National Assembly delegates attending the meeting. Photo: Pham Thang

There are opinions suggesting that the draft Law should take a universal approach; study regulations in the direction of support for children born (such as tuition support policies, subsidies for raising children up to a certain age); clarify support for cases of giving birth to a second child or more; prescribe measures to support regular pregnancy check-ups and childbirth for women who have not participated in health insurance; consider regulations in the direction of assigning the Government to adjust the priority policy for purchasing social housing suitable for each stage; study additional solutions to support infertility treatment and measures to reduce abortion rates.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/nghien-cuu-ho-tro-tai-chinh-nhom-phu-nu-sinh-du-2-con-truoc-35-tuoi-o-muc-cao-hon-10392542.html