In the Draft Population Law being considered by the National Assembly, a prominent content that attracts much attention is the proposal to prioritize the purchase or rental of social housing for two groups of subjects: Women who have given birth to two children or men who have given birth without a wife or whose wife has died.
This is a new regulation to expand groups of people entitled to housing support policies, in addition to traditional subjects such as people with revolutionary contributions, people with disabilities, relatives of martyrs, etc.
In an interview with Lao Dong reporter, lawyer Nguyen Van Dinh - Real estate legal expert, had specific analysis of this regulation.
Lawyer Nguyen Van Dinh analyzed that the purpose of this policy is primarily to maintain replacement fertility. According to the draft Population Law as well as the provisions of the current Population Ordinance, the replacement fertility rate is the average fertility rate in the whole society when each couple has two children. Vietnam is facing the challenge of declining birth rates, leading to the risk of population aging faster than expected. Therefore, encouraging couples to have two children is considered a long-term task and requires practical support from the policy.
In Article 8 of the draft Population Law, the drafting agency emphasized the priority in communication, mobilization, and education on marriage and childbirth to maintain replacement fertility.
Specific measures to maintain the replacement fertility rate proposed in Article 13 include: Increasing maternity leave when giving birth to a second child (women are entitled to an extra month's leave, men are entitled to 5 more working days off); financial support for ethnic minority women, women who give birth to 2 children before the age of 35, women living in the locality with a low fertility rate; at the same time, prioritizing the purchase or rental of social housing for women who give birth to 2 children or men who have 2 children without a wife or a deceased wife.
The draft Population Law also proposes to amend Point d, Clause 1, Article 79 of the current Housing Law to clearly stipulate the group of women who give birth to 2 children and men who have 2 children without a husband or wife who has died are given priority to enjoy social housing policies, in addition to traditional subjects such as people with revolutionary contributions, relatives of martyrs or people with disabilities...
That is, if this regulation is passed, single father raising two children will have better access to social housing without having to "row up" too long.
According to lawyer Nguyen Van Dinh, there are a number of issues to note when implementing this policy. Firstly, the draft only prioritizes social housing support for men who have 2 children without a wife or have died, so the case of men adopting a child will not be considered priority. Meanwhile, the reality is that there are more and more "single fathers", leading to an increase in demand for support policies.
Second, the application of policies needs to be carefully calculated to avoid unwanted consequences. One of the concerns raised is whether the policy will create a loophole for fake divorces to fall into the priority group. Although this is just a hypothetical fact, according to lawyer Dinh, lawmakers cannot ignore this risk during the review and discussion process before considering the law.
Thus, it can be seen that expanding social housing support to create conditions for people to feel secure in having 2 children is a positive goal. However, every regulation put into practice requires a strict control mechanism, identifying the right subjects, avoiding exploitation, and at the same time ensuring compliance with local implementation resources. Only then will the policy truly be effective, contributing to supporting social security and sustainable population stability in the coming time.
