The girl in the flower season should be left on the campus, and the village should not have a "mother in the flower season"
Guizhou Specially Manages Early Marriage and Early Childhood to Stop the "Poverty Cycle" in the Fight Against Poverty
Our reporter Wang Li, Li Jingya, Liu Zhiqiang
In some remote ethnic minority areas, under the influence of traditional ideas and the actual environment, the bad habits such as patriarchy, early marriage and early childbirth are still difficult to get rid of, and some places even have the custom of snatching marriage. Many young girls who are in the flower season should have a colorful and colorful campus life, but they have given up their studies in poverty and prejudice and married early to give birth. "Mother in flower season" has become a social phenomenon that cannot be ignored.
How to protect these poor girls' right to education and get out of the visible "poverty cycle" requires the concerted efforts of all parties in the society to specifically manage early marriage and early childbirth, increase the control of dropping out of school, and effectively change the concept of knowledge to change destiny. Pass to every village deep in the mountain.
The pitiful "Mother in Flower Season"
Walking on the university campus, the 20-year-old Yao girl Wu Meimei relaxed and confident, full of youth.
Last year, as the first female college student in the township, she subverted the traditional ideas of her hometown and opened a new page in her life. For Wu Meimei, a vibrant university campus and a remote and closed hometown seem to be "two worlds."
In Xiulao Village, Leidong Yao and Shui Township, Leiping County, Guizhou Southeast Guizhou Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, the age of the girls has become a "mystery".
"I was born in 2000, and the ID card was written in 1997." Wu Meimei, who was born in this minority village, said that in order to facilitate early marriage, the girls in the village are usually written by their parents 3 to 5 years old when they register.
Wu Meimei only graduated from elementary school, and her family has begun to consider finding her mother-in-law. Wu Meimei told reporters that the girls in the village read up to junior high school. Many girls around them got married when they were fifteen or sixteen years old. Most of them did not get a marriage certificate.
"There is a girl next door who is two years younger than me, and now the children are more than one year old. There is another girl who is two years older than me and has a good academic record, but the parents do not allow them to study, and they marry before junior high school. What worries Wu Meimei the most is not that she is powerless, but that the concept of "the whole village does not support girls to study" is so ingrained.
Seeing Wu Meimei in the same village walking into the university, Yao Xin girl Wu Xinmei was full of envy and longing. "I am still a child, do not want to marry, let alone bring a child early." "I have always wanted to study, and I especially envy people who study, and envy their lives." She said with emotion that the outside world is no longer The same, but in the village, the importance of men over women is serious, and most of the girls’ marriages are still arranged by their parents.
Wu Xinmei ranked first in the family. Impressed that her mother gave birth to four younger sisters before she gave birth to her 10-year-old brother. "After the other sisters were born, they didn't know where they went. My parents never mentioned them again, they might be given away by them!" she recalled.
Last year, Wu Xinmei, who had a good academic record, was lucky to be admitted to the high school in the county. On the day of enrollment, she came to the county for the first time and couldn't help lamenting that "the county is really big." Because of the spread of the epidemic this year and the winter vacation of the school extended, some boys of the Yao ethnic group followed their parents to Wu Xinmei's family to raise relatives, including her cousin's cousin.
"It's customary for girls to marry but it's normal to marry relatives in the village." Facing the reporter's surprised expression, a 16-year-old Dong girl in the village said disapprovingly. According to media reports, in some remote ethnic minority villages, girls of the age of 15 or 16 are married to men of their own ethnicity. In the past, it was even an unwritten tradition.
The 17-year-old Yao girl Qin Chenbi is particularly afraid of "promoting relatives". In the past two years, girls of her age in Xiulao Village were almost married, but she was not reconciled. After graduating from junior high school, she did not obey the arrangement of her family to prepare for marriage, but she applied for a vocational nursing major. "After graduating three years later, I went to work in the township health center." Tan Chenbi said.
Ma Lin, deputy director of the Cooperative Counterpart Support Office in the East and West of Liping County, found during a grassroots visit that as the grade increased, the gap between male and female students widened rapidly. For example, in Gaoqiu Village, Shuangjiang Town, the ratio of boys to girls is 1.2:1 in elementary school, 2:1 in junior high school, and it becomes 13:1 in high school. There are no female college students in the village, only one girl is in high school, and the boy is admitted to college There are nine.
Chen Huiqi, a member of the CPPCC National Committee of Guizhou Province who has been engaged in the protection of minors for a long time, once used a county where ethnic minorities in eastern Guizhou are relatively concentrated as a sample. The survey results show that as of November 2019, 20,937 women aged 10-19 were registered in the county, and the number of early marriages There are 2222 people, the early marriage rate is 11.47%, and 73 of them are under 14 years old.
"Many parents see that their children have average grades, so they let them give up studying, take them out to work, or marry early to marry a family." A teacher in the eastern region who has been teaching in Guizhou for many years is deeply worried about the problem of local early marriage and early childbirth. A leader of the county hospital told him that he had received a 16-year-old girl who was already the mother of two children and had to perform surgery on the third child with a stunted stomach. Since no one signed the operation sheet, the hospital could not operate on her.
"Some parents think that especially girls, it doesn't matter whether they read or not, just a few words. Because the family's economic conditions are not sufficient, girls marry early, not only can reduce the burden on the family, but also can get a gift money." Said the teacher.
Visible "Poverty Cycle"
In the recent years of poverty alleviation in Guizhou, many schools in remote minority areas have been renovated and the educational conditions have been significantly improved. However, the local custom of early marriage and early childbirth, together with the eugenics and prenatal education policies, are not in place, which has brought control to dropouts. It is very difficult.
Take some villages in Bijie City as an example, having children "three and five are normal, seven and eight are not strange", and they are young mothers of several children, the poorer the more, the more poor, the more illiterate or semi-illiterate . Those girls who marry and have children early can only fall into a visible "poverty cycle".
Wu Xinmei's mother has never read a book, and his father read only the third grade of primary school. In her view, mom and dad are "lessons to learn", married early and had children, and worked very hard to make a living. To support her and her younger brother, her parents worked as lumberjacks in Guangxi for many years.
Last summer, Wu Xinmei went out for the first time and followed his parents to work in Guangxi. With a hard day under the scorching sun, I can only earn more than 100 yuan. In order to help her parents more, she worked hard for more than 20 days. "It's too tired." Wu Xinmei couldn't hold on, crying and running home.
Wu Xinmei didn't want to repeat this kind of life because his parents' hard life could not be seen at a glance. "Only reading can we change our destiny and have more rights to choose our lives." Wu Xinmei's hope for his future is, "Find a job that can sit in the office and blow air conditioning, and find a knowledgeable and cultural partner."
Wu Meimei's mother was only 17 years old when she married, but the ID card showed that she was 27 years old. "Mum was actually born in 1974, and the household registration was originally in 1964." Wu Meimei, who grew up with her grandmother since childhood, remembers that when she was very young, her parents had been working outside.
According to some interviewees, at that time, pregnant women in the village gave birth to children at home, and the children were born without a birth certificate issued by the hospital. It was very common to register in the later years, often when the parents reported it in the same year. year.
"There are many rural families in the local area. Because their parents go out to work, their children are supervised by relatives of the next generation. These older grandfathers and older people with lower education levels are limited to teaching children to recognize a few words and count a few words. "The former principal of Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School in Zhejiang and the principal of Taijiang County National Middle School in Guizhou, Chen Liqun, said that when a child enters adolescence, the rebellious character needs guidance and sensitive psychological cravings for comfort. Helpless.
At the same time, the marriage and family relationship concluded by relying on the customs of early marriage and early childbirth in rural areas is extremely unstable, and social disharmony factors have increased. Wang Yan, a 16-year-old Dong girl from Xialao Village, told reporters that some of her early 20-year-old girls were divorced and took their children, and some even started a second marriage.
"If kneeling works, I would like to kneel down and beg them not to drop out of school." A cadre in Leidong Township, Liping County said helplessly. Due to the remoteness and long-term closure, there are many deeply impoverished villages in the Yao and Shui settlements, and a few Ethnic children don’t understand Chinese, and they are very tired of studying. They go out to work without grading in junior high school. “Which villages drop out of school, school teachers, village cadres, film directors, and grid members all have to find ways to do work, even if they run to Guangdong and Zhejiang will also take them back."
Zhu Pingyan, a professor of sociology at Huazhong Normal University who has been studying women’s issues for a long time, believes that children in poor areas themselves are stunted, immature women have premature births, and the probability of fetal morbidity and death is very high. The return of rural households from poverty to poverty also hinders the legal process of society.
Today’s girls are the future mothers, they have lost their education opportunities, and the next generation will also be affected. Changing the fate of a girl is tantamount to creating the future of a family.
Nowadays, the problem of early marriage and early childbirth is getting more and more attention. At the end of 2019, the courts, procuratorates, public security bureaus, and judicial bureaus of Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province jointly issued regulations to punish illegal marriages such as early marriage and early childbirth, grabbing marriages, and not sending children to school, involving early marriage and early childbearing, and minors under the age of 18 dropping out of school And other related illegal acts will bear corresponding legal responsibilities.
On January 15, 2020, "Strengthen the dynamic management of dropout protection, carry out special governance for early marriage and early childbearing, and ensure that children from poor families go to school without any one". As a "hard bone" to win the battle against poverty, it was written into Guizhou Provincial "Government Work Report".
"Mountain Phoenix" flying out of the mountains
In 2019, when Xiacheng District of Hangzhou City carried out poverty alleviation cooperation between East and West in Liping County, it decided to launch the “Shan Fenghuang” Caring Girl Charity Project in response to the phenomenon of early marriage and early childbearing in remote minority villages.
Zhou Guojiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Liping County Party Committee and deputy head of the county, said that the purpose of the "Phoenix Mountain" charity project is to help girls in mountainous families with special difficulties to realize their dreams of reading, change their destiny through knowledge, block the intergenerational transmission of poverty, and let "Golden Phoenix" fly from the mountain nest ".
Liping County selected the poor villages with a relatively high dropout rate of girls out of school through data surveys, conducted field visits and surveys, and finally determined that 12 villages in 6 townships were the recipients of the first batch of "Mountain Phoenix" girl care programs-yes Girls who graduated from junior high school, admitted to high school, graduated from high school, and admitted to university will be given a one-time reward of 3,000 yuan, 5,000 yuan, 5,000 yuan, and 8,000 yuan, respectively, based on the implementation of the education poverty alleviation policy.
"Let the people in the village know that girls study better than marrying." After the middle and college entrance examinations, the county, township, and village help cadres played the gongs and trumpeted Sheng, making the biggest noise and awarding bonuses. Send it to the home of the assisted girl, let the parents fully share the sense of honor brought by the daughter to school to the family and family, and guide the villagers to realize the importance of girls' education.
In August 2019, the first batch of bursary grants totaled 167,000 yuan and funded 29 girls. Wu Meimei, Wu Xinmei, Wang Yan and others became the first batch of recipients of the "Mountain Phoenix" project. Wang Yan, who was just admitted to Li Ping No. 1 Middle School, received the 5,000 yuan bursary under the attention of the whole village. At this moment, she was crying: "Our girl became the protagonist on this day. I have never felt this way."
Wu Meimei, who is currently studying at a normal college in Guizhou, was a scholarship received in the blessing of the whole village. She wrote in a later letter: "That day was the first time in my life I felt so proud and proud of reading. On weekdays, parents who have a lot of stress and few smiles have their faces raised. A gratifying smile. I must work hard to be able to stand up to that special day."
"Economically direct rewards can not only effectively solve the problems of mountain girls' tuition and living expenses, but also let girls' parents intuitively feel that'knowledge is money' and'girls are useful for reading.'" Zhou Guojiang said.
"Support for girls not only improves their situation, but is also changing the concept of parents and villagers." Tang Dinghai, the first secretary of Xiluo Village in the village, said, "Golden Phoenix is flying out of the mountain nest" The vivid story strongly impacts the old-fashioned concept of "the uselessness of girls reading" in impoverished minority villages, and is also eradicating the "soil" that breeds the concept of "not paying attention to girls' education".
Some experts believe that governing early marriage and early childbearing and caring for poor girls requires not only the “Phoenix Phoenix” charity action, but also the joint efforts of all sectors of society, as well as increased legal publicity and institutional constraints. Chen Liqun believes that villages and communities should strengthen their understanding, timely grasp the situation of girls in the local compulsory education stage, intervene in early marriage behaviors, and be included in the scope of village regulations and civil autonomy, improve local laws and regulations, and appropriately punish parents of early marriage and early childbearing minors. . Local women's federations, youth league committees, voluntary organizations, and public welfare organizations should strengthen cooperation to help these girls.
"The government should help women who are willing to receive more education and let more'mountain phoenixes' fly out. Those who are really reluctant to study after graduating from junior high school should help them master the skills through vocational education and agricultural technician training." Zhu Pingyan He believes that combining wisdom and poverty alleviation, in areas where the phenomenon of early marriage and early childbirth is serious, expands the “Marriage Law” propaganda through campus lectures and other methods to raise young people’s awareness of the harmfulness of early marriage and early childbirth, by training township sages, old villagers, village cadres, etc. Ways to gradually guide the masses to change backward customs. (Some interviewees are pseudonymized)