Lang Son population sector: 60 years of building and development

– Over 60 years (1961 – 2021) of building and growth, under the leadership of the Party, the direction and administration of authorities at all levels, along with the whole country, population work in the area has achieved many important achievements, contributing to promoting the development of the country in general and Lang Son in particular.

As a mountainous border province, along with the whole country, the population – family planning work of the province has experienced ups and downs but full of pride with the efforts of the staff doing population work from the province to the grassroots.

A propaganda skit on population and family planning work in the 2021 Population Propaganda Festival Contest

Right from the early 60s of the last century, although the country was still divided into two regions, the work of population and family planning was concerned, led and directed by the Party and the State with the promulgation of the Decision 216-CP of the Government Council (now the Government) dated December 26, 1961 on guided childbirth. After the country’s reunification, the population policy still aimes mainly at reducing childbirth and it has been implemented nationwide.

In the 1992 – 2016 period, population work in the area had a comprehensive change in quality and quantity. In 1993, the specialized apparatus of Lang Son province was established separately under the Provincial People’s Committee, which is a permanent part of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Family Planning. By June 2008, the Provincial Sub-Department of Population and Family Planning was established under the Department of Health and established the Population and Family Planning Centers in ten districts and the city in the area.

In the 2017-2020 period, population work in the area continued to be strengthened and gradually changed the goal from family planning to population and development according to Resolution 21-NQ/TW of the 12^th Central Committee on population work in the new situation, concretized by Lang Son with Plan No. 51-KH/TU of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee dated January 26, 2018 to implement Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW on population work in the new situation in Lang Son province. In 2018, the organization, apparatus and human resources performing the work of population and family planning were consolidated with the merger of eleven population and family planning centers into medical centers of districts and the city.

Currently, the whole province has nearly 2,000 staff directly engaged in the work of population and family planning, of whom 1,705 health workers – the population of villages, hamlets and street groups – are “extended arms”, ” going to every alley, knocking door-to-door, checking each object” to bring communication and provide quality population, reproductive health care and family planning services to the people.

As a result, by 2020, the total childbirth rate was 2.19 children (close to the replacement childbirth rate and the province had the lowest childbirth rate among 33 provinces with high childbirth rates; initially controlling the gender ratio gap at birth at 115.2 baby boys/100 baby girls (in 2021, the sex ratio at birth is 114.6 baby boys/100 baby girls). Malnutrition, maternal mortality and child mortality have decreased sharply. The percentage of children receiving newborn screening in 2020 was over 50% of the total number of newborn babies; the rate of pregnant women receiving prenatal screening reached over 60%; the rate of elderly people receiving periodic health check-ups reached 94.1%.

Having obtained the above results, the most important solution is to promote and diversify communication and education activities to raise awareness and change people’s behavior on population and family planning work.

The staff of Bac Son District Health Center took a blood sample from the heel of an infant

Mr. Nguyen Quang Bang, Deputy Director in charge of the Provincial Sub-Department of Population and Family Planning, said that over the past time, propaganda has been carried out to the people in various forms, easy to understand and suitable for many groups of people. Propaganda content mainly focuses on the guidelines and policies of the Party and the State on population work in the new period, the current outstanding population issues such as population quality, gender imbalance birth, adolescent and youth reproductive health, etc. Forms of propaganda are always improved and diversified to achieve higher and higher effectiveness.

In addition, the unit continues to implement comprehensive and synchronous solutions to solve the problems of population size, structure, distribution and quality and put it in a relationship of interaction with the province’s socio-economic development.

With the results achieved, from 1998 to 2000, Lang Son Child Care and Protection Committee was honored to receive the Certificate of Merit from the Viet Nam Committee for Child Care and Protection for three consecutive years in gaining achievements in assigned tasks; from 2011 to 2020, the unit received five certificates of merit from the Ministry of Health and three certificates of merit from the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee for outstanding achievements in performing tasks and projects implemented by the sector. Along with that, in 2018 and 2019, the Sub-Department of Population and Family Planning received the emulation flag of the Ministry of Health for the unit with excellent achievements in the patriotic emulation movement and so on.

Mr. Phan Lac Hoai Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Health said that in the upcoming time, the Department of Health will continue to direct the Sub-Department of Population and Family Planning to focus all resources and be determined to realize the goal of quickly bringing the common childbirth rate of the whole province to the replacement childbirth rate (2.1 children/woman) and maintain each couple to have two children by 2030, reducing the disparity in the birth rate of the third child or more between districts and the city; bring the sex ratio at birth to 112 baby boys/100 baby girls by 2025 and less than 109 baby boys/100 baby girls by 2030; make effective use of the “golden population” structure; adapting to “population aging”; improve population quality, contribute to the provincial socio-economic development.