Women get an extra month off and financial support when they have a second child

When giving birth to a second child, women are given an additional month off, and men are given an additional five working days off when their wife gives birth. Ethnic minority women, women who give birth to two children before the age of 35, and women in areas with low birth rates will receive financial support when giving birth. The government will set a minimum level of support.

These are measures to maintain the replacement fertility rate stipulated in Clause 1, Article 13 of the draft Population Law. The draft law was presented to the National Assembly by Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, authorized by the Prime Minister, this morning, October 23.

Also according to the draft law, women who give birth to two children or men who have two biological children but are unmarried or have a deceased wife will be given priority to buy or rent social housing.

Free premarital examination, prenatal and newborn screening

Minister Dao Hong Lan said the Population Law project inherits the Population Ordinance and has many new points to solve current population problems in Vietnam such as declining birth rate, gender imbalance, and population aging.

The addition of regulations on policies to increase maternity leave, financial support, housing priority, etc. for women who give birth to two children as above aims to encourage birth rate increase and maintain replacement level birth rate.

Along with the increase in birth rate, to improve the quality of the population, the draft law stipulates the implementation of pre-marital health consultation and examination for men and women according to the regulations of the Minister of Health ; implementation of measures for screening, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and congenital defects before birth and in the newborn for pregnant women and newborns according to the list issued by the Minister of Health. These activities will be guaranteed by the State budget.

To reduce gender imbalance at birth, the draft law encourages the inclusion of the content of not favoring males over females and not choosing gender at birth in the village and community conventions; and stipulates the suspension of medical practitioners who announce, notify, or disclose information about the gender of the fetus to customers (except for cases of determining gender for the purpose of diagnosing and treating gender-related genetic diseases as prescribed by the Ministry of Health).

Draft law aims to increase birth rate and reduce gender imbalance. (Illustration photo: Dinh Huong/VNA)

To adapt to population aging, the draft law stipulates support for elderly care (such as guiding the elderly to take care of themselves, providing support services, home and community care, organizing forms and models of elderly care at home and in the community); developing human resources for elderly care (integrating geriatric training content into medical knowledge updating training programs, encouraging scholarships or tuition subsidies for learners to develop geriatrics, prioritizing development and building policies to attract human resources in the geriatric field); providing and processing information, notifications, and denunciations of acts of infringement or obstruction of the elderly from exercising their legal rights (establishing a national support hotline...)

Solving population problems

Regarding the need for a Population Law, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that some legal provisions on population are no longer suitable to the practical situation and do not meet the requirements of population work in the new situation. Specifically, the Population Ordinance does not have specific solutions to maintain replacement fertility, adapt to population aging and improve population quality.

Meanwhile, the current population situation in Vietnam has raised issues that need to be promptly resolved. The national birth rate is trending downwards below the replacement level. The gender imbalance at birth is still high compared to the natural balance threshold. The population quality has not met the requirements.

The reason is that some party committees and authorities have not yet properly and fully recognized the difficulty, complexity and long-term nature of population work. Communication and awareness raising work is still limited, leading to many places still being heavily affected by gender stereotypes.

The Population Ordinance was issued in 2003, so its provisions are no longer suitable for practice and are not consistent with the current legal system. In addition, resources for population work have not met the requirements, and the investment budget is not commensurate. Late births, few or no births, along with economic pressure in giving birth and raising children, are also factors affecting the birth rate.

International experience shows that to increase birth rate and maintain replacement level, it is necessary to improve maternity leave, paternity leave, rewards for childbirth, monthly cash allowances for children, housing support... Measures to reduce gender imbalance at birth include banning sex selection-related behaviors; promoting gender equality; economic and social support to reduce economic and cultural pressures leading to son preference; communication to change community awareness... To improve population quality, some countries have regulated and organized prenatal and newborn screening, pre-marital health check-ups...

The Ministry of Health's leaders said that the above reality shows that building the Population Law is necessary to create a unified and synchronous legal basis to contribute to institutionalizing the Party's guidelines, policies and guidelines on population and overcoming limitations and shortcomings, meeting the requirements of population work in the new situation./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/phu-nu-duoc-nghi-them-1-thang-va-ho-tro-tai-chinh-khi-sinh-con-thu-hai-post1072110.vnp