People in the Ham Thuan Nam highlands have good awareness of the Marriage Law.

Thanks to the strong participation of local authorities in disseminating and popularizing the law, people in the mountainous areas of Ham Thuan Nam now have a good awareness of legal regulations, especially the issues of early marriage and incestuous marriage.

Ham Thuan Nam has 12 communes and 1 town, with more than 101,500 people, of which ethnic minorities account for 5.52%, mainly in the highland communes of My Thanh and Ham Can. Their lives are still difficult, so their awareness of legal regulations is limited. Therefore, the situation of early marriage, incestuous marriage, domestic violence... affecting the security and order situation still exists.

In that situation, Ham Thuan Nam regularly pays attention to directing, perfecting, and improving the quality of the team of legal reporters doing legal education and dissemination work in ethnic minority areas. Especially since 2021, right after the Government approved the National Target Program on socio -economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, period 2021 - 2030. In which, phase I of the Program is implemented from 2021 to 2025, this work has received even more attention. The Ethnic Affairs Department has coordinated with the District Justice Department to promote propaganda and legal education in ethnic minority areas. Agencies and units have coordinated to organize propaganda to the people on ethnic policies, the Law on Gender Equality, the Law on Marriage and Family, the Law on Forestry, the Law on Land, etc.

One of the conferences to popularize legal education in the mountainous areas of Ham Thuan Nam district.

Thanks to that, the legal awareness of a part of ethnic minorities has been significantly improved. This is reflected not only in daily life but also through the question and answer sessions in propaganda conferences and legal dissemination. At the recent conference on propaganda and legal dissemination on early marriage and incestuous marriage organized by the Justice Department of Ham Thuan Nam district in coordination with the Provincial Lawyers Association in the highland communes of My Thanh and Ham Can, it is a proof. Many ethnic minorities did not need to think, they answered fluently the questions about the provisions of the Law on Marriage and Family from the reporter. That surprised us and even the people in the working group, because we did not think they understood the law so well. "Men are 20 years old, women are 18 years old, if they are not old enough to get married, it is a violation of the law. Incestuous marriage will give birth to children with deformities and many genetic diseases...", Ms. Nguyen Thi Them in My Thanh answered firmly to the reporter of the Provincial Lawyers Association.

Women in the Ham Thuan Nam highlands are aware of the disadvantages of early marriage and incestuous marriage.

While on the sidelines of a similar conference in Ham Can, Ms. Mang Thi Nhai shared that she has two daughters, and she advised both of them to get married after the age of 20. She said that getting married at a young age would be miserable, not only for the parents but also for the children when living conditions are still difficult and miserable. The children are miserable, if they are healthy it is okay but if they are sick it is miserable. As a parent, seeing this is heartbreaking.

However, like other local people, not everyone here has a firm grasp of all legal regulations. Therefore, they need more conferences to disseminate legal knowledge to improve their legal knowledge. From there, the evils of child marriage and incestuous marriage have receded further. “The whole commune has about 80 young people aged 13-18, and since the beginning of the year, there has been no case of child marriage. Compared to many years ago, child marriage and incestuous marriage have decreased significantly. People here now understand the law, but sometimes they are subjective, so the risk of child marriage occurs,” said Mr. Thong Hoai Thanh - Secretary of the My Thanh Commune Union.

Mr. Tran Tien Phuc - Head of the Justice Department of Ham Thuan Nam district commented that compared to before, the awareness of law compliance of ethnic minorities in the district has clearly increased. Especially in the issue of marriage and family, they are always aware that early marriage and incestuous marriage do not bring benefits to the family. However, there are also cases where people understand the law but intentionally do not handle it properly due to the local authorities.

Source