Phuoc Son (Quang Nam) strives to reduce child marriage: Positive signals (Part 2)

With the drastic participation of Party committees, authorities, political organizations, and unions throughout the area, the situation of consanguineous marriage in Phuoc Son (Quang Nam) has ended. However, the problem of child marriage still occurs in some villages and communes of ethnic minorities. In order to push back and eventually end this problem, the district's Ethnic Affairs Department and related units have implemented a series of programs and activities and have initially achieved many positive results. Infrastructure projects and livelihood models invested in ethnic minorities with specific difficulties in Nghe An are being put into operation, contributing to changing the face of the village and changing the lives of the people. However, in order for people to benefit more from the policies of the Party and the State, it is necessary to promptly remove related obstacles. On the afternoon of October 28, continuing the program of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the National Assembly held a plenary session to listen to the drafting and reviewing agencies' reports on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army. After storm No. 3, Quang Ninh is again facing the risk of forest fires with about 6 million tons of acacia, pine, and eucalyptus wood falling and covering the forest surface. Continuously recording about 30 fire spots, the province has deployed many key solutions to protect the remaining forest areas, considering the task of forest fire prevention and fighting as urgent as preventing storm No. 3. During the busy days of October and the last months of the year, in his position as Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of the Government, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, recently visited and worked with the Ethnic Committee. At this working session, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh emphasized that in advising and planning policies, special attention must be paid to ethnic minority areas and areas with special difficulties. With the close attention of the Party Committee, the government of Dong Nai province and the ethnic affairs sector, over the past years, the work of preserving and developing the traditional culture of ethnic minorities in the whole province has always been maintained and promoted in community life, thereby meeting the needs of enjoying spiritual culture, contributing to promoting the socio-economic development of the province. Infrastructure works and livelihood models invested in ethnic minorities with special difficulties in Nghe An are being put into operation, contributing to changing the face of villages and changing the lives of people. However, in order for people to benefit more from the policies of the Party and the State, it is necessary to promptly remove related obstacles. From December 1, 2024, Decree No. 127/2024/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 05/2011/ND-CP on ethnic affairs will take effect. Decree No. 127/2024/ND-CP has added a preferential treatment mechanism for Prestigious People and a number of units and individuals who are ethnic minorities, thereby gradually legalizing the policy of honoring typical examples among ethnic minorities. The summary news of the Ethnic and Development Newspaper, on October 28, has the following notable information: After storm No. 6, from Ha Tinh to Quang Ngai there was heavy rain, widespread flooding and the risk of landslides. "Chap cach uoc mo" for many ethnic minority students to reach the shore of knowledge. "Igniting" the tradition of lion and cat dance for the younger generation. Along with other news in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. A Lu commune, Bat Xat district (Lao Cai) is a locality that suffered a lot of damage to people and property in the recent historic floods. To help households whose houses were completely collapsed due to storms and floods to have stable housing before Tet, the Lao Cai Border Guard Command in coordination with Thanh Nien Newspaper, Hoa Phat Steel Group and Bat Xat District People's Committee has just organized the groundbreaking ceremony to build 28 houses for households in A Lu commune. On October 28, the Criminal Police Department in coordination with the Mobile Police Department of Lang Son Provincial Police said that the unit had just dismantled a large-scale gambling den, with a tunnel system longer than 300m and complex escape routes and fences to avoid investigation by the authorities. Lao Cai, La Chi people live concentrated in Bac Ha district. In recent times, the district has implemented many programs and projects to restore, preserve and promote the unique cultural identity of the La Chi people. With creative approaches, the work of preserving La Chi ethnic culture in Bac Ha district has contributed to connecting traditional values ​​to the flow of contemporary life. On the morning of October 29, continuing the program of the 8th Session, the 15th National Assembly, the National Assembly held a plenary session in the hall to listen to the Presentation and Verification Report of the draft Law on Public Investment (amended). After exciting rounds, the contest "The Charming Beauty - Charming Youth of Yen Bai" in 2024 has found the top 15 best contestants. These beautiful and talented contestants will compete in the Final night of the Contest, scheduled to be held at 19/8 Square, Yen Bai city, on November 9.

Thanks to effective propaganda work, child marriage in Phuoc Son has been gradually reduced.

Resolutely push back child marriage…

Phuoc Son has 11 communes and 1 town, with 42 villages and residential groups. Of which, 10 communes belong to area III, Phuoc Xuan commune and Kham Duc town belong to area I. The population of the district is about 28,000 people, including 22 ethnic minorities. Due to difficult economic conditions, most people mainly work in agriculture, slash-and-burn farming, and the poverty rate is still high.

According to information from the leaders of the Phuoc Son Ethnic Affairs Department, in previous years, the rate of child marriage was still high, with 40 cases of child marriage occurring in the area in one particular year. However, in recent years, with the drastic participation of Party committees, authorities, political organizations, and unions, in which issues of health care and family planning have received special attention, thereby ending the situation of incestuous marriage, the number of child marriages in ethnic minority areas has gradually decreased.

Specifically, in the period 2021-2022, the number of child marriage cases in the area was 35 cases; by 2023, it had decreased to 24 cases. Up to now, thanks to the determination of all levels and units, the number of child marriage cases is now only 15 cases, mainly in Phuoc Chanh and Phuoc Thanh communes. Currently, localities are also urgently promoting the work of propaganda and dissemination of laws, aiming to end this problem.

To achieve this positive result, we must mention the great role of the whole system, in which the Party Committee and government from the district to the grassroots level, schools are continuing to pay attention, direct, and closely coordinate with departments, branches, and organizations of the district, communes, and towns in implementing the project. Along with that, the role of village elders, prestigious people, village chiefs, heads of residential groups, and collaborators is increasingly promoted, to join hands in doing a good job of propaganda, education, and mobilizing cases at risk of early marriage in the locality to understand the consequences of this problem and give it up.

“Propaganda on preventing child marriage is carried out in many different, diverse and rich forms, mainly raising people's awareness of the consequences caused by child marriage, thereby, people are proactive in preventing and combating child marriage. Moreover, starting from the method of "slow and steady wins the race", the young generation today is increasingly raising awareness, thereby gradually abandoning child marriage", said Mr. Nguyen Van Bang, Head of the Ethnic Affairs Department of Phuoc Son district.

Phuoc Son integrates a variety of models to propagate and mobilize to end child marriage.

Diversified forms of propaganda

According to Mr. Bang, from 2020 to now, the District Ethnic Affairs Department has made efforts to coordinate with departments, branches, sectors, and localities to implement the Project "Reducing child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas" in the period of 2016-2020, the Project to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage, period of 2021-2025". At the same time, many synchronous solutions have been implemented, including promoting propaganda and training; organizing dramatization competitions in ethnic boarding schools and high schools in mountainous districts.

Specifically, in the period of 2020-2021, the District Ethnic Affairs Office coordinated with the Medical Center to organize 5 propaganda sessions in the form of theatrical art, such as: Magical Hat at secondary schools in Phuoc My, Phuoc Nang, Phuoc Duc, Phuoc Hiep, Phuoc Hoa communes for 250 students from grades 8-9 to participate in the contest with the theme "say no to early marriage and incestuous marriage".

Next, in 2022-2023, the Department coordinated with the Farmers' Association and the District Health Center to organize a propaganda conference on Reducing child marriage and incestuous marriage at two schools: Kham Duc High School and the District Boarding Ethnic High School for hundreds of students.

In addition, the Ethnic Affairs Department of Phuoc Son district also distributed nearly 5,000 leaflets and 50 billboards on child marriage prevention and control. In addition, training sessions were organized for prestigious people and village and commune officials on child marriage and incestuous marriage prevention.

The district has also implemented pilot models and specialized models on “intervention and reduction of child marriage and consanguineous marriage” in the locality. Currently, the “Eliminating Child Marriage Practice” Club model is still maintained in Village 1, Phuoc My Commune with 20 members managed by the Women’s Union of Phuoc My Commune.

At the same time, from 2021 to present, the District Ethnic Affairs Department has closely coordinated with the Quang Nam Provincial Ethnic Affairs Committee and related departments and branches to integrate many contents in the propaganda for the implementation of the Project to reduce TH&HNCHT, such as: Law on Marriage and Family, Law on Gender Equality, Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, Population and Family Planning, Adolescent Reproductive Health Care, etc.

The involvement of the entire political system with many solutions has partly awakened the self-awareness and responsibility of each individual and each family in voluntarily complying and minimizing the occurrence of early marriage in their family.

“Through the propaganda and mobilization work of consulting groups, interventions and models to reduce TH&HNCHT, ethnic minorities in particular and people in the district in general have a fuller awareness of the consequences and implications of the above problem for individuals, families and society. Since then, many people have changed their behavior, contributing to reducing TH&HNCHT in the locality,” Mr. Bang acknowledged.

Phuoc Son (Quang Nam) strives to reduce child marriage: Holding and rocking a child in a sad cradle...(Part 1)

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/phuoc-son-quang-nam-no-luc-keo-giam-tinh-trang-tao-hon-nhung-tin-hieu-tich-cuc-bai-2-1730129055347.htm