Duong Quoc Trong, vice director of the Central Office for Population and Family Planning

There is no penalty for breaking the current law limiting married couples to having two children, said Vice Director Duong Quoc Trong of the Central Office for Population and Family Planning.

According to Trong, the number of couples having more than two children rose 10 percent between 2007-2008.

“The increase was because people misunderstood the previous ordinance released in 2003, giving couples the liberty to decide the number of children they want to have,” Trong said.

That’s why the Standing Committee of the National Assembly released an amended ordinance at the end of last year, limiting couples to two children, he said.

“At present, the government expects people to abide by the ordinance without any enforcement. But Party members and civil servants, who have to be exemplary, will be punished if they violate the limit.”

Party members will be warned for having three children and expelled from the Party for having four children, Trong said, adding that such members who are also officials will be demoted or banned from promotions.

He also noted that public servants will receive a similar punishment.

“The Ministry of Health has submitted a decree with more specific regulations on punishment for civil servants who breach the law,” Trong said.

According to official figures, the number of families in Vietnam having three children or more increased by 13.4 percent in the first half of 2007 over the same period for 2008.

In the first nine months of 2008, couples already with two children gave birth to more than 93,000 babies.

Trong also said the draft law would allow some couples to have a third child when: either the mother or father belongs to an ethnic minority with a population of less than 10,000; couples whose child has died; remarrying individuals who already have one child apiece; and mothers who have given birth to multiple children in their second pregnancy.

Most couples who give birth to more than two children are poor families from remote and rural areas, according to Trinh Hoa Binh, head of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences’ Health and Development Research Department.

Trong said the ordinance states unmarried women have the right to have only one child.

Reported by Lien Chau