Women who give birth to two children before the age of 35 receive financial support and priority in buying social housing.

The draft Population Law proposes policies to encourage women who give birth to two children before the age of 35 to receive financial support and priority in purchasing social housing.

Continuing the working program at the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of October 23, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan and Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh read the submission and summary review report of the draft Population Law, drafted by the Ministry of Health. This is considered an important foundation, creating a comprehensive and synchronous legal framework for population and development work in the new period.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan presents the report. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that the draft Population Law consists of 8 chapters and 28 articles, focusing on core, non-overlapping policies, including: Maintaining replacement fertility; minimizing gender imbalance at birth; adapting to population aging; improving population quality; communicating - mobilizing - educating about population; ensuring conditions for implementing population work.

Regarding maintaining replacement fertility, the draft proposes policies to encourage having two children, including financial support for women who have two children before the age of 35, women from ethnic minorities with very few people, and women in localities with low fertility rates. In addition, women in these groups are given priority to buy or rent social housing, and increased maternity leave when giving birth to a second child.

Regarding reducing gender imbalance at birth, the draft adds synchronous measures, strengthens communication to change gender stereotypes, and controls the behavior of choosing the sex of the fetus. At the same time, requires the Government to periodically publish a list of localities with high levels of imbalance or those that have achieved natural balance in order to have appropriate intervention policies.

Regarding population aging adaptation, the draft has a separate chapter regulating policies to support elderly care, encourage the development of long-term care services, community care; develop geriatric human resources, train medical staff, doctors, and social workers to serve the elderly. At the same time, it adds regulations on establishing a system to receive and process information and denounce acts of violating the rights of the elderly, contributing to ensuring the rights and quality of life of this population group.

Regarding improving population quality, the draft emphasizes solutions for counseling, pre-marital health check-ups, prenatal and neonatal screening and diagnosis of congenital diseases, ensuring all children are born healthy, contributing to reducing the medical burden and improving the physical and mental health of Vietnamese people.

In particular, an important new point is that the draft strengthens decentralization, empowering provincial authorities to proactively choose measures, timing and arrange budget to implement population policies, in accordance with the socio-economic characteristics and population dynamics of each region.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh presents the inspection report. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Acknowledging the new points of the draft Population Law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh affirmed that the draft law has institutionalized the Party's policies and guidelines on population work, in accordance with the Constitution and basically ensures unity and synchronization in the legal system.

However, the review agency also requested the drafting agency to continue reviewing and supplementing some specific contents to ensure feasibility and consistency between the submission, draft Law and component reports, and at the same time carefully assess the impact of policies, implementation resources and international experience suitable to Vietnam's conditions.

Regarding the overall policy on population work, the Committee recommends that the drafting agency add a provision regulating the State's policy on population work in the general provisions section, reflecting the overall policy framework guiding key areas such as living conditions, housing, education, and health care. This provision should closely follow Resolution No. 21-NQ/TU and Resolution No. 72-NQ/TU of the Politburo to institutionalize the viewpoint of shifting the policy focus from family planning to population and development.

National Assembly delegates attend the meeting in the hall on the morning of October 23. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Regarding solutions to maintain replacement fertility, the Committee recommends that there should be a comprehensive, fundamental and sustainable solution, including research on financial support for women who give birth to two children, especially women under 35 years old; clarifying the criteria for "localities with low fertility rates"; and adding regulations requiring the Government to periodically announce the fertility status to help localities develop appropriate incentive policies.

Some suggestions include a universal approach, direct support for children born, expanded tuition policies, child support, as well as reproductive support measures, infertility treatment, and reduced abortion rates.

Regarding the control of gender imbalance at birth, the Committee proposed to revise the regulations to be more comprehensive, ensuring consistency with the prohibited acts in Article 6; at the same time, request the Government to periodically publish a list of localities with high gender imbalance or having achieved natural balance.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/women-with-2-children-before-35-tuoi-duoc-ho-tro-tai-chinh-uu-tien-mua-nha-o-xa-hoi-720638.html