Hanoi (VNA) – Members of low-populated ethnic minority groups will be allowed to have more than two children per family, according to the deputy director of the General Office for Population and Family Planning (GOPFP) Duong Quoc Trong.
Current regulations encourage families to limit their number of children to two. This amendment, however, would allow couples of ethnic minority groups, with populations of less than 10,000, to have more than two children.
The draft amendment on the existing 2003 Ordinance on Population’s Article 10 will also be adjusted to clarify that couples and individuals are encouraged to have no more than two children. The current ordinance lays out that couples and individuals have the right to decide on when they bear children, the number of children and the period between births based on their age, income, health, study, labour or working conditions.
Trong said that existing Article 10 had some short-comings, in that some couples misinterpreted it to mean that the State did not encourage a limit to the number of children a family could have.
The draft amendments will be submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee this year. If approved, the Government will issue a guiding decree.
Trong said the population had rapidly increased since 2006, including the number of couples choosing to have three children. He noted this rise had put pressure on society, straining health and education resources.
“If Article 10 were revised we believe that it will be easier to get this message out there,” said Trong.
The draft amendments also stipulate that couples will be permitted to have more than two children if one of their children is disfigured because of an accident or fatal disease, after getting authorisation from a health agency.
Officials statistics show that there were around 93,000 third child births in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 10 percent over the same period last year. This year’s total is estimated to reach 142,000.
Deputy Director of GOPFP Nguyen Van Tan blamed Vietnam ’s crowed population on a post-war baby boom and lack of experience in controlling the rapidly increasing population. It was not until the end of the 1980s and early 1990s that the country began setting controls, as the population grew sharply.
“In the future, revisions will focus on child-bearing age groups in rural areas where average birth rates are 2.3, compared to 1.7 and 1.8 per couple in urban areas,” said Tan.-Enditem
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