The State should subsidise families with small children: expert

A medical worker takes care of a newborn at the Central Highlands Region General Hospital. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyên Dung

HÀ NỘI — Warnings about declining birth rates in Việt Nam have been highlighted in many places by many experts recently.

They said that Việt Nam's fertility rate is heading down below the 'replacement level'.

Over the 19 years since reaching the replacement level in 2005, for 15 years the fertility rate has been lower than the level needed to maintain the population.

Professor Nguyễn Đình Cử, former director of the Institute of Population and Social Issues under the National Economics University, said that after 45 years of family planning, Việt Nam achieved its goal of reducing birth rate in 2005.

At that time the birth rate dropped to approximately 2.1 children per mother (which is that replacement level) and has been lowered since then.

Childbirth has changed from a natural, instinctive behaviour to a planned behaviour, from passive to active, from large quantity and low quality to small quantity with high quality, from less responsible childbirth to a more responsible one.

“This is truly one of the most profound social changes in Việt Nam in the past 80 years, having a positive impact on life quality of each individual, family, community and the country’s sustainable development,” said Cử.

However, Việt Nam's fertility rate is showing a tendency to fall below the replacement level.

In particular, the entire urban and southern regions have fallen below the replacement level for about 25 years now.

Last year, the average number of children per woman at the end of childbearing age in urban areas was only 1.7 while in rural areas it was 2.07, in the southeast it was 1.47 and in the Mekong Delta it was 1.54.

Cử is concerned that the birth rate will continue to decline if there are no new policies to respond to and prevent the downward trend.

The birth rate in some regions and provinces of Việt Nam has decreased sharply, but on average across the country, it is still around the replacement level. Therefore, the serious challenges of the issue have not yet been fully expressed.

“However, lessons learnt from developed countries with similar cultures can warn of the challenges caused by the trend of deep decline in birth rates, both at the macro and micro levels,” he said.

First of all, at the macro level, many countries with prolonged low birth rates are suffering population decline, labour shortages, a high elderly population, slow and even negative economic growth.

Cử analysed that at the micro level, a very low birth rate of one child for a long time will lead to the '4-2-1 syndrome', meaning four grandparents, two parents and one child.

When the only child is young, he/she is taken care of by six people including parents and grandparents. But conversely when he/she grows up, he/she is responsible for taking care of six people.

Being taken care of by many people and having to take care of many people are disadvantageous to both the development of the only child and the family’s life quality in general.

The sad reality can also be that parents with only one child are left alone, when their children die from accidents or illnesses.

In addition, in many localities, the low birth rate has led to a sharp decrease in the number of primary and secondary school students. As a result, local authorities must merge schools from two different communes or wards into one new school.

Support

A parade to promote the increase in birth rate and improve population quality in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Đinh Hằng

Cử proposed a solution to increase the birth rate, suggesting that the State should support families with small children.

“If having children not only benefits the couple and the family, but also benefits society, providing human resources for society, then of course, raising children cannot be the sole responsibility of the family, especially when the cost of raising children is increasingly large compared to the income of young couples,” said Cử.

Therefore, the State, family and society need to work together to raise and educate children.

The State needs to diversify the forms of sharing costs of raising and educating children with couples, such as an one-off payment, annual allowances, reduction of personal income tax, exemption or reduction of obligations to contribute to the community when raising small children, exemption or reduction of tuition fees, he said.

In addition, Cử also proposed that couples with young children enjoy flexible working conditions, such as reduced working hours, coming in late and leaving early, unpaid leave and working from home.

In Korea, female workers enjoy 90 days of maternity leave whereas male workers whose wives give birth are entitled to ten days of leave. Childcare leave is up to one year for both male and female workers. Workers can choose the appropriate time to take time off to care for their children until their children are eight years old.

At the same time, the State should have policies for couples treating infertility.

Việt Nam has more than one million infertile couples, accounting for about 7.7 per cent.

Thus, technical and financial support for infertility treatment is a great economic need, along with having great humanitarian significance and is a solution to increase birth rates.

Other proposed solutions include promoting research and communication on the declining birth rates in the country, creating forums for people, especially young people, to discuss the immediate and long-term consequences of late marriage and low birth rates, innovating policies and laws related to birth rates, ensuring social security for the elderly and developing a system of family support services.