The truth about the policy of giving priority to buying social housing for women who give birth to 2 children

(Chinhphu.vn) – The Department of Population, Ministry of Health - the agency drafting the draft Law on Population, said that women who give birth to 2 children or men who have 2 biological children but are unmarried or have lost their wives, are just expanding the criteria for priority beneficiaries of social housing policies. The priority groups are stipulated in the Law on Housing 2023.

Mr. Pham Vu Hoang, Deputy Director of the Department of Population, Ministry of Health, provided information to the press about the draft Law on Population - Photo: VGP

Speaking to the press on November 7, Dr. Dang Quynh Thu, Head of the Department of Population Size and Family Planning, Department of Population, Ministry of Health, said that in this draft of the Population Law, there are additional criteria. Financial support when giving birth, priority consideration for policies to buy or rent social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing .

However, the policy of giving priority to groups of subjects who are allowed to buy or rent social housing has been stipulated in the Housing Law 2023. This Law stipulates 12 groups of subjects entitled to enjoy housing support policies and conditions for enjoying housing policies.

These subjects include the poor, near-poor, low-income people or civil servants, public employees, workers, laborers in industrial zones... However, the 2023 Housing Law does not distinguish between these groups of subjects having children or not having children.

Therefore, the Department of Population has proposed in this draft of the Population Law to add priority criteria for consideration of the policy of buying or renting social housing for women who have given birth to 2 children or men who have 2 children but are unmarried or have lost their wives. This draft Law does not add priority subjects.

"With this policy, we hope to help families, couples and individuals with two children settle down soon, reduce the burden of housing, and focus on caring for and raising their children," Ms. Thu shared.

Dr. Dang Quynh Thu said that the draft Population Law does not add priority beneficiaries for buying or renting social housing, but rather expands the criteria for those eligible - Photo: VGP

From world experience…

Nowadays, the trend of having fewer children is increasing. There are many factors affecting the birth of couples and individuals such as the economic situation of having children, raising children, and the place of residence, especially in industrial zones and export processing zones.

In the world, many countries have been and are going through this stage. According to the world's experience, Ms. Thu believes that there are 4 main groups of policies to intervene to increase low birth rates.

The first group of policies, at the workplace, needs to improve maternity, parental leave, unpaid leave, job security, shorter or part-time working hours.

The second group of policies that the world is applying is financial incentives, bonuses for having children, tax incentives, monthly cash allowances for children, and housing rental or purchase assistance.

The third group of policies that the world is also applying is child care, such as increasing child care services, supporting child care costs, etc.

The fourth group is reproductive support such as improving state support for IVF and insurance regulations on infertility issues…

"We have studied these policy groups and have made some proposals in Article 13 of the draft Population Law. We also advise the Government to base on the actual situation of each locality to add specific policies or subjects suitable to the local economic development situation," said a representative of the Population Department.

The draft Population Law prohibits the selection of fetal sex in any form, except for cases of sex determination for the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases.

…to solutions to improve low replacement fertility

According to Mr. Pham Vu Hoang, Deputy Director of the Department of Population, the goal of the replacement fertility policy in this draft Population Law is to achieve and maintain a stable replacement fertility nationwide to have a reasonable population size, contributing to slowing down the population aging process and minimizing gender imbalance at birth.

The solutions proposed in this draft Law on Population continue to inherit Ordinance No. 07/2023 of the National Assembly Standing Committee amending and supplementing Article 10 of the Ordinance on Population, which stipulates that each couple and individual has the right to decide on the time of giving birth, the number of children and the interval between births in accordance with the age, health status, conditions of study, work, work, income and child-rearing of the couple and individual on the basis of equality.

At the same time, the Population Law Drafting Committee added a number of measures that directly encourage couples to have more children and have two children.

Specifically, Article 13 of the draft Population Law proposes to increase maternity leave when giving birth to a second child. In particular, women will be given an additional month off, and men will be given an additional 5 working days off when their wife gives birth.

The draft also proposes financial support for giving birth to ethnic minority women, women who give birth to two children before the age of 35, and women in localities with low birth rates.

Notably, the draft Law proposes to give priority to buying or renting social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing for women who have given birth to two children or men who have two children and are unmarried or have lost their wife.

To propose these solutions, the leader of the Population Department emphasized that the drafting agency has reviewed and ensured the feasibility of the regulations consistent with the current legal system and created a synchronous legal corridor to firmly maintain the replacement fertility level nationwide.

The provisions on the rights and obligations of couples and individuals when giving birth in this draft Law also ensure the legality and policy consistency of the legal system, especially the 2013 Constitution.

The solutions are also consistent with international treaties related to population development to which Vietnam is a member, and with Vietnam's political commitments on population and development at multilateral forums.

The drafting committee expects that these policies will encourage individuals and couples to have children, and have two children to ensure replacement fertility nationwide, avoid rapid population aging, reduce gender imbalance at birth, thereby contributing to stabilizing the labor force, population size and positively impacting the quality of human resources, contributing to economic growth.

Reality has shown that both states of overpopulation due to increased fertility or population decline, reduced labor productivity, and fertility falling below replacement level leave major consequences.

According to the Population Department, to implement this solution, the State will have to ensure a budget source to carry out propaganda and implement support policies to encourage people to have children and have two children.

Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population, Ministry of Health, said that Vietnam is the first country in the world to have a separate resolution on population. Population is the center, goal and driving force of development, socio-economic development creates conditions to improve population quality and population factors are integrated into strategies, planning and development plans at all levels.

The Draft Population Law has institutionalized the shift in focus of population policy from family planning to population and development, through focusing on standardizing four major policies: maintaining replacement fertility, minimizing gender imbalance at birth, adapting to population aging, aging population and improving population quality.

Currently, the draft Population Law is being submitted to the 15th National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 10th session.

Hien Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/thuc-hu-chinh-sach-uu-tien-mua-nha-o-xa-hoi-doi-voi-phu-nu-sinh-du-2-con-102251107135602321.htm