Viet Nam is seeking to increase the population of some ethnic minorities, especially for groups whose populations are below 1,000, such as the Brau, Si La, Ro Mam, . . .

While Kinh people are advised to have no more than two children each, population officials are trying to encourage some minorities to have more children to avoid disappearing from Viet Nam.

“Though special population programmes were set up for minority groups, there hasn’t been a marked increase in the populations of these groups,” said Trinh Hoa Binh, from the Institute of Sociology, yesterday at a workshop on measures for improving the lives of ethnic minority groups in Viet Nam.

An institute survey showed that the number of Si La people had increased from 400 in 1996 to 451 in 2004, an increase of only 51 people over eight years. The Brau population increased by just nine people from 1999 to 2003, while the number of Ro Mam ethnic minorities went from 352 to 330 in 2003.

“Ethnic minority groups with very few people have increased slowly, even with the Government’s permission to have three children per family,” said Binh.

Researchers said that ethnic minority groups with declining populations usually lived in the mountainous border areas of Viet Nam and China or Viet Nam and Laos. They lived in mountainous areas with poor infrastructure, transportation, agriculture production and social services.

“Inbreeding is also a problem,” said Binh.

“We need to invest in comprehensive development projects for groups at risk of population decline, focusing on infrastructure projects including electricity, transportation, schools and health care,” said Dao Huy Khue, from the Central Highlands Sustainable Development Institute.

Statistics show that the rate of people living under the poverty line is 80 per cent in the Si La, 85.5 per cent in the O Du, 38 per cent in the Pu Peo and 51 per cent in the Brau. The average income per capita in those groups is very low, between VND25,000 (US$1.3) and VND38,000 ($2.1).

The National Assembly’s Nationalities Council has implemented projects for comprehensively developing five minority groups with populations under 1,000 people, including the Pu Peo, Si La, O Du, Ro Mam and Brau, with an aim to help them integrate with the majority by 2010.

Priorities should be given to improving education and physical strength for ethnic minority groups, especially for women and children, said Khue.

The intellectual standard for minority people is still very low, especially for women in mountainous and remote areas. Statistics show that many children from all ethnic groups have not enrolled in schools.

At the workshop, participants agreed that long-term programmes focusing on research, education, training and knowledge dissemination should be set up with an aim to minimise the gap between those groups and more developed groups. A population policy should permit each couple in groups with fewer than 1,000 people to have a maximum of three children, and to receive support with reproductive health and family planning.

Solving social issues in ethnic minority areas, especially reducing poverty and improving intellectual standards, played an important role in the socio-economic development cause of these areas, according to Nguyen Lam Thanh from the Nationalities Council.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News