STATE MANAGEMENT OF PREVENTION OF EARLY MARRIAGE AND CONCUBINES IN ETHNIC MINORITY AREAS IN VIETNAM TODAY

Abstract

Early marriage and consanguineous marriage are still notable social issues in many ethnic minority areas in Vietnam, negatively impacting children's rights, reproductive health and population quality. This article analyzes the role and effectiveness of state management in preventing and combating these two phenomena, based on a mixed method: synthesizing official documents, analyzing policy documents, surveying specialized documents and local reports, and analyzing a number of reports evaluating the implementation of the Project to reduce early marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas (2015-2025 period). The results show that: (1) The State has built a relatively complete legal framework (Law on Marriage and Family 2014; Decree 82/2020), issued specialized decisions and Projects, and implemented many communication interventions, pilot models and inter-sectoral cooperation programs; (2) However, implementation still faces many limitations: weak capacity and resources at the commune and village levels; interventions are not sensitive enough to culture; program fragmentation and lack of monitoring, supervision and evaluation systems; (3) These factors make progress in reducing child marriage and Consanguineous Marriage uneven among localities. Based on the analysis, the article proposes: (i) perfecting institutions and inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms with clear responsibilities; (ii) improving grassroots administrative capacity and financial resources for the program; (iii) developing culturally sensitive interventions, involving prestigious people in the village; (iv) building a monitoring system and interconnected data; (v) linking social security and education policies with prevention interventions. The article emphasizes that state management must both ensure strict laws and be flexible in soft interventions to change customs in the community.