"Sad Lullabies"
Following an officer from the Ethnic Affairs Department of A Luoi district, we met a newly married couple who got married early this year, TXN (Pa Co ethnic group, born in 2004, in Trung Son commune, A Luoi district) and NTHM (Van Kieu ethnic group, born in 2007, in Phong Dien district).
According to N., she dropped out of school in 9th grade, stayed home to help her parents with housework and take care of her younger siblings. She met HM by chance when she visited a relative in Phong Dien district. HM is a distant relative of N. The two got to know each other, after a while of getting to know each other, fell in love and decided to live together.
Currently, N. is only 19 years old and does not have a stable job. HM is still a minor, unable to take care of himself, and still dependent on his parents. HM confided: “Since getting married, my husband and I have not yet stabilized our lives. My husband does whatever he is asked to do. A few months ago, someone hired him to work in the cajuput and acacia forests, earning about 200,000 VND per day, but depending on the season, it is not always available. Normally, I just stay at home and help my parents with housework.”
Mr. HXV, N.’s father, shared: “We also warned and reminded our children, but they said they loved each other so much that the family could not stop them, so we had to get married for them. Now that they are married, I still advise my children to try to find extra work to earn some money to take care of the family.”
Visiting a consanguineous couple in Lam Dot commune, A Luoi district, they are AVVH (Co Tu ethnic group, born in 1996, in Chi Hoa village), his wife is HTL (Ta Oi ethnic group, born in 1998, residing in A Tin village). Married since 2020, H. and L. have a son named HVMK. However, because they could not register their marriage due to consanguineous marriage (H. and L. are related), the couple's son had to take his mother's surname. Because of the consanguineous marriage, when K. was born, it seemed that he was not normal.
L. confided that she graduated from university, and although she knew that incestuous marriage would cause unpredictable consequences, she still went ahead with the marriage because she was in love. Now, her family situation is quite difficult, her husband is the main breadwinner in the family, and he works hard to take care of the two of them.
The good news is that in 2022, there was a couple who almost got married in Chi Lanh – A Ro village, Lam Dot commune, but the commune got the information and intervened in time. Not long after that, the couple decided to go their separate ways.
Timely correction
Mr. Ho Viet Ai, Head of the Ethnic Affairs Department of A Luoi district, said that in 2022, there were 22 cases of child marriage, no cases of incestuous marriage. From the beginning of 2023 until now, there have been 8 cases of child marriage; no incestuous marriage occurred. In 2023, child marriage decreased by 8 cases compared to the same period in 2022.
There are many reasons leading to early marriage and incestuous marriage, such as: Influenced by customs and practices of ethnic minorities; having to get married when pregnant; limited understanding and awareness of legal regulations and consequences of early marriage and incestuous marriage among the people; especially the influence of social networks, the internet...
“Along with propaganda and mobilizing families with children who violate the rules on how to care for pregnant women who are not yet of marriageable age, convincingly explaining that pregnancy does not necessarily require marriage..., those who do not comply will be forced to be administratively punished to deter andeducate . These cases will also not be recommended for annual gifts and will not be considered for priority for at least 5 years,” said Mr. Ai.
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