Discuss birth control solutions to maintain population balance

On October 22, the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Union organized a workshop on "Sharing experiences and proposing solutions to encourage increased birth rates in provinces with low birth rates, ensuring maintenance of replacement birth rates", to discuss a strategic issue that has a profound impact on the future of the country.

Photo caption — Overview of the workshop. Photo: Organizing Committee

As a socio -political organization with the function of representing and caring for women of all classes, and actively participating in Party building and state management, the Vietnam Women's Union has proactively implemented many practical activities to contribute to adjusting birth rates and ensuring sustainable population development.

At the workshop, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, Vice President of the Vietnam Women's Union, said some solutions such as: The Union has promoted propaganda through the campaign "Building a family of 5 no's, 3 clean's", the model "Family of 5 yes's, 3 clean's", the movement "Emulation to build a new-age Vietnamese woman", encouraging women to give birth to 2 children and raise their children well. At the same time, the Union actively participates in giving opinions and criticizing many policies and laws related to the right to give birth, raise children and female labor, in order to create a favorable legal environment for women to give birth and raise children safely, with special attention to vulnerable groups.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien also frankly admitted that, in the context of a sharp decline in birth rates in some localities, current solutions are still not strong and consistent enough. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize and replicate effective models, and at the same time listen to and resolve difficulties at the grassroots level to propose more suitable policies for each region and each group of women.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, former member of the Politburo, former Deputy Prime Minister , former Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, pointed out four lessons for Vietnam to learn from high-income countries but with unsustainable human development.

First, governments must enact marriage and childbearing support programs as soon as possible after fertility begins to fall below replacement level, and policy solutions to support marriage and childbearing must be sufficiently robust and must return fertility to the replacement level before the labor force declines.

Second, the state budget alone cannot support all low-wage workers to achieve a "living wage" for a family of four. Therefore, the participation and shared responsibility of business owners and employers is a must. Only when the state and businesses join hands can the goal of every hard-working worker having an income not lower than the minimum living standard of a family of four become a reality.

Third, early education is needed so that students and young people understand the value of family and the value of having children for the survival of the nation and country. It is necessary to clearly realize that the more young people do not have children, the faster the country and the nation will decline in terms of human resources and decline.

Fourth, it is necessary to add a "Happiness subject" to the education program so that young people are not only educated to become good citizens. Workers must have good professional skills but also have the knowledge and skills necessary to make themselves and others happy, know how to raise children, and know how to build and maintain a happy family.

Ms. Dinh Thi Huong, Administrative Director, Chairman of the Trade Union of Phong Thai Rubber Company Limited (Hoa Loi Ward, Ho Chi Minh City), brought practical experiences from her own business in promoting births. Accordingly, her business regularly organizes internal communications about the benefits of having two children, support policies of the State and businesses, insurance - maternity regime, in many diverse forms such as skits, short videos, and talks on "Raising children in the 4.0 era".

The company cooperates with the Women's Union and the local health center to organize free gynecological health check-ups, pre-marital check-ups, and reproductive counseling for female workers. The union also advises the leadership to give money and gifts to pregnant and giving birth female workers; organizes Tet and Mid-Autumn gifts, scholarships for workers' children; organizes annual trips and picnics.

In particular, businesses reduce working hours for pregnant women and women with children under 12 months old, provide flexible working positions, and allow sick childcare leave without pay deductions.

"Thanks to these policies, the current birth rate within the ideal birth age in the enterprise is relatively high, female employees ensure reasonable birth spacing and mother-child health is focused on. Specifically, the enterprise has more than 500 employees, of which 40% are female. The number of female employees within childbearing age accounts for 80%, the birth rate of 2-3 children is 96%, mainly in the age group of 20-35 (90%)", said Ms. Dinh Thi Huong.

Mr. Pham Chanh Trung, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Population Department, shared at the seminar: "In addition to birth promotion policies, we need to combine many other solutions to create a stronger spread in society.

For example, we can take advantage of the influence of movies - a gentle, close and easy-to-understand form of communication - by promoting movies and programs that honor the image of happy families with 2 children. In addition, communication through KOL channels, singers or works of art with content that promotes family values and encourages having 2 children will also bring positive effects, spreading widely in the community.

In addition, there needs to be inter-sectoral coordination, especially the role of the Women's Union in connecting and promoting policies to support people such as housing policies, personal income tax, etc. to help mobilize and encourage childbirth become more practical and effective.

"Currently, many people still want to have children, even many children when they have enough conditions to take care of them, so this is the "golden time" for sectors and levels to promote birth promotion work. If we hesitate and do not act promptly, the opportunity will pass," Mr. Pham Chanh Trung emphasized.

Sharing about the perspective of promoting fertility for couples with infertility problems, Dr. Tran Ngoc Hai, Director of Tu Du Hospital, said: "Humans are both resources and the most valuable assets of society. A society with a low birth rate and a decreasing population will lead to many serious consequences. Therefore, for couples who want to have children but have difficulties due to infertility, there should be financial support programs during the treatment process. The Women's Union and the Youth Union can coordinate with hospitals to implement support models such as egg banks and sperm banks, helping couples have more opportunities to become fathers and mothers. In addition, for those who already have children and are planning to abort them, we need to increase communication and convince them to keep the fetus. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that couples who want children can easily access appropriate medical services, in order to increase the rate of children being born and receiving the best care and protection. right from the womb

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/van-de-quan-tam/thao-luan-cac-giai-phap-khuyen-sinh-nham-giu-can-bang-dan-so-20251022213417524.htm