The Ministry of Public Health launched National Action Month on Population in Hanoi on December 5.

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said the ministry will increase public awareness of gender balance at birth, implement polices that give priority to women and families with girls, enforce laws on banning gender selection at birth, and educate teenagers at home and schools on gender and gender equality in the near future.

According to Tien, the ministry has launched educational campaigns and formulated plans for national population and family planning in 2013, and improved the health of infants with the early detection of congenital malformation in recent times.

Projects to manage population of sea and island communities, gender inequality at birth, and providing community-based healthcare services for the elderly are also underway in many localities, he said.

The ministry called on health staff and the entire nation to focus their efforts to successfully realise goals in population size, structure and quality.

Statistics from the health sector show that the ratio between boys and girls born has dramatically widened, increasing from 104-109 boys born for every 100 girls between 1999 and 2005 to 109.8-111.9 boys born for every 100 girls between 2006 and 2011.-VNA