Scornet Catherine. This article considers the Red River Delta, and shows how the mode of agricultural production wet-rice cultivation and the value system ancestor worship have been responsible for the choice of the birth control policy and the ways in which it has been applied. In elaborating national measures to limit population growth, the Vietnamese political authorities have defined a general framework, but in response to the constraints specific to the Red River region, the local administration at the provincial and communal levels has retained some scope for adapting population policies to local conditions.
An Example of Coercive Fertility. Reduction, as seen in the Region. Fertility in Viet Nam began to decline in the early s, with a total fertility rate TFR dropping from an average 6. From the early s successive governments have taken the physical, economic and cultural characteristics of Viet Nam into account to set up a policy of fertility reduction, now building on them and now overcoming the obstacles they may offer. In this article will be shown how, in the Red River Delta, the mode of agricultural production wet rice cultivation and the values system ancestor worship have been decisive in choosing a birth control policy as well as the modes of its implementation.
For example the wet rice cultivation is labour-intensive, and ancestor worship demands that people should have at least one son, but these economic and cultural data, that imply high fertility, come into conflict with the environment constraints, and particularly with the high demographic pressure on the land. The Red River Delta was chosen for this study for several reasons, including the fact that fertility in the area began to decline earlier than elsewhere in Viet Nam.
In the Delta are also to be found the strongest constraints and assets for the implementation of a birth control policy, as compared with other regions. The field research was conducted in two districts: one, An Hiep, in the Thai Binh province in the lower part of the Delta, and the other, Ninh Hiep, in the Hanoi province. The two districts were also chosen for their degree of isolation: An Hiep, approximately kilometres from Hanoi, can be reached only using a ferry across the Red River, whereas Ninh Hiep is 20 kilometres from Hanoi.
In a country where it was prohibited to move freely about until April , a few months before I started my field investigation, the choice of the districts for study obviously much depended on local officials agreeing to let me conduct my research. Transitions and tensions. The demographic transition. Viet Nam can be considered an example of rapid demographic transition. The Vietnamese population, which is now estimated to be Viet Nam's high demographic growth in the 20th century is characterized by fluctuations reflecting the many disturbances undergone by the country in the last hundred years.
