Vietnam is the first country in the world to build and promulgate the Population Law.

To date, no country in the world has a Population Law. Vietnam is the first country in the world to develop and promulgate a Population Law. The Population Law creates a unified and synchronous legal basis to contribute to institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, policies and strategies on population and overcoming limitations and shortcomings, meeting the requirements of population development in the new situation.

Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population ( Ministry of Health ) emphasized this in a press briefing on the Draft Population Law held on November 7.

4 major policies

According to Mr. Dung, the Law aims to promptly and fully institutionalize the Party and State's policies and guidelines on population work in the new situation. Inheriting the provisions of the Population Ordinance, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of individuals and organizations in population work; referring to international legal experiences and those of some countries in the world to ensure compliance with international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

Mr. Pham Vu Hoang - Deputy Director of the Department of Population said that the Draft Population Law has been built and completed in the direction of inheriting, adjusting 10 articles, amending 01 article, and abolishing 26 articles of the 2003 Population Ordinance to be suitable, meet practical requirements and overcome difficulties and obstacles in population work.

The Ministry of Health has also studied and added 15 articles including regulations on: communication, mobilization, and education about population; adjusting population size, structure, and distribution; improving population quality; and conditions to ensure implementation of population work.

Mr. Pham Vu Hoang - Deputy Director of the Department of Population. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

The Draft Law on Population has many innovative contents compared to the Population Ordinance, focusing on standardizing 4 major policies: Maintaining replacement fertility, minimizing gender imbalance at birth, adapting to population aging, aging population and improving population quality. The scope of this adjustment is consistent with the 4 policies approved by the Government and does not stipulate contents that have been adjusted in other laws.

New additional contents compared to the provisions of the Population Ordinance on maintaining replacement fertility: increasing maternity leave, financial support when giving birth, adding priority criteria for buying or renting social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing.

The law proposes to increase maternity leave for the second child; provide financial support for certain groups (ethnic minority women; women in localities with low birth rates; women who give birth to two children before the age of 35); and give priority to buying or renting social housing according to the provisions of the law on housing.

Priority subjects for buying social housing

Regarding the issue of priority criteria for purchasing social housing for some subjects, Mr. Le Thanh Dung said that recently, public opinion has been stirred up by information that men with 2 children but no wife are in the priority group to buy social housing. Many people are concerned about legal gaps, even faking divorces to qualify for buying social housing. The Draft Population Law clearly states that men with 2 children whose wives have died are in the priority group to buy social housing. The Director of the Population Department added that there are many subjects who are given priority to buy social housing, including women who have given birth to 2 children.

Mr. Dung informed that before submitting to the National Assembly, the Draft Population Law was consulted with experts and scientists to complete it and avoid legal gaps.

According to the Ministry of Health, if the gender imbalance at birth continues to remain high, by 2034, Vietnam will have a surplus of 1.5 million men aged 15-49, and this number will increase to 1.8 million by 2059.

(Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Faced with this situation, to reduce the gender imbalance at birth and bring the gender ratio at birth back to a natural balance, the draft Population Law proposes a number of regulations: Prohibiting the selection of the gender of the fetus in any form except for the case of determining the gender for the purpose of diagnosing and treating genetic diseases related to gender; encouraging the inclusion of the content of not favoring males over females and not choosing gender at birth in the village covenants and conventions of the residential community.

For medical staff, medical practitioners who announce, notify, or disclose information about the gender of the fetus to customers will be suspended, except for cases of determining gender for the purpose of diagnosing and treating gender-related genetic diseases according to regulations of the Ministry of Health.

To adapt to population aging, the Law has many contents to support elderly care, develop human resources for elderly care; provide and process information, notify and denounce acts of infringement and obstruction of the elderly from exercising their legal rights.

According to the representative of the Population Department, the demand for elderly care and geriatric facilities is increasing. The draft Law mentions the need for suitable day care and boarding facilities for the elderly. Care centers are entitled to investment incentives to carry out this work.

With the aim of improving population quality, the draft Law proposes to implement pre-marital health consultation and examination; prenatal and neonatal screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

Regarding the conditions for ensuring the implementation of population work, the Law stipulates human resources and funding for population work to create conditions for population work.../.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/viet-nam-la-nuoc-dau-tien-tren-the-gioi-xay-dung-va-ban-hanh-luat-dan-so-post1075586.vnp