Many people are afraid of giving birth: Maternity time is increased, husbands are allowed to take time off to take care of their wives

(Dan Tri) - According to experts, there are many reasons why many couples today consider having children, including economic pressures, development opportunities...

Many young people are afraid to have children.

On November 13, the Department of Population - Ministry of Health coordinated with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to organize a meeting to contribute ideas to complete the draft Population Law.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, a representative of the Department of Population said that the draft Population Law has been submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for consideration, focusing on four major policy groups: maintaining replacement fertility; minimizing gender imbalance at birth; adapting to population aging; and improving population quality.

This is a bill of law of special importance, expected to have a direct impact on the country's socio -economic development.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cu - former Director of the Institute of Population and Social Issues, in the context of a low birth rate, the question of how many children to have is no longer a family matter but has become a socio-economic problem that the State and the community must shoulder together.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cu said that to encourage childbirth, there should be policies to share child-rearing costs with young couples (Photo: Thuong Huyen).

He pointed out that there are many reasons why many couples today consider having children, including economic pressures, development opportunities, etc. When the benefits of having children decrease while the costs increase, it is inevitable that young people want to have fewer children, thereby reducing the birth rate.

According to him, the low desire to have children reflects the current physical and mental burden of raising children. From there, he suggested that it is necessary to further expand support policies and reduce the economic burden on couples to encourage having children.

According to the leader of the Population Department, the Draft Population Law supplements many new contents of the Population Ordinance, in line with population work in the new period.

Currently, the national fertility rate is trending down below the replacement level, from 2.11 children/woman (2021) to 2.01 children/woman (2022), to 1.96 children/woman (2023), and 1.91 children/woman in 2024. This is the lowest fertility rate in history and is forecast to continue to decrease in the following years.

Therefore, the goal of maintaining the replacement level of fertility is very important. The Draft Population Law proposes many policies such as increasing maternity leave by 1 month for women, men being given 5 working days off when their wives give birth, financial support when giving birth, adding priority criteria to buy or rent social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing... to encourage couples to have 2 children.

Proposal to increase retirement age

With the proposal to raise the retirement age to 65 attracting the attention of many workers and experts, delegates spent a lot of time discussing.

In reality, workers of the same age have different health conditions. There are jobs that require physical strength, and there are also jobs that require intelligence, expertise, and technical skills.

For highly qualified workers such as engineers, doctors, teachers, etc. at the age of 60, if they meet the health requirements and have the desire, they should be encouraged and facilitated to continue to contribute voluntarily.

“If older, highly skilled workers meet health requirements, not only will they continue to contribute, but society will also benefit,” said Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan.

According to Professor Nguyen Thien Nhan, the Population Law has decisive significance for the country's future in the next 50-100 years (Photo: Thuong Huyen).

Besides the retirement age, delegates actively discussed many other ideas in the draft Population Law.

“The development of the Population Law at this time is extremely important. This is not only a ‘golden’ opportunity, but should be called a ‘diamond’,” Professor Nhan emphasized.

Vietnam has only about 20 years left to take advantage of its “golden” population. Professor Nhan cited that in 1975, Vietnam’s population was only about 50 million people; 50 years later, the number had surpassed 100 million.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/nhieu-nguoi-ngai-sinh-con-tang-thoi-gian-thai-san-chong-duoc-nghi-cham-vo-20251113193902468.htm