Population Tendency Family Characteristic Population Migration

Population Tendency

Most of the population in Khun Tan area apply family planning and birth control. Some communities on highlands (Khun Huay Mae Pao, Ga Lae, and Mai Suksun in Phayamengrai district) have less birth control as their social values is to have lots of children especially boys. Some families have 5 – 12 children  to help them work and extend the family name. The population growth rate thus is higher every year. Access to government information is difficult so the people do not know the birth control campaign of the government (Reference : Phayamengrai Public Health at April 2007).

Consistent birth control campaign is executed in the communities on plains so the average children per family are 2 – 3. Thus the tendency of number of youth is lower than the elders. Basic Need Data 2007 shows that there are only 1,642 population under 15 years of age while there are 12,405 population over 15 years of age making the ratio of 1 : 7.55. In Phayamengrai district, the number of population under 15 years of age is 2,097 while that over 15 is 21,934 making the ratio of 1 : 10.459 (Basic Need Data 2007).


 

Family Characteristic

Families in the area especially in the hill tribe communities (Khun Huay Mae Pao, Ga Lae, and Mai Suksun villages) are generally extended families living in one same household or in the neighborhood to help each other. Elders like grandparents, uncles and aunts are to take care of the children  

Single family will be the future trend because it is more flexible for the members to move together to other places for work and modern couples need to be on their own (Source : focus group discussion of community leaders from 8 sub-districts).

  

Role of Head of Family

Husband is usually the head of the family though the general decision belongs to the married couple such as home additional construction, motorcycle or car purchase, disciplining children, and children education. Decision on purchasing home accessories and food is made by the wife while the husband decides on making credit with financial institutions, selling agriculture products, and selling family land. The evaluation report by Chiang Mai University shows that 36.96% of the decision making is made by the couple; 22.96% is made by the wife (on daily life matter); 21.01% (on other important matters) is made by the husband; and 19.07% (on other matters) is made by the grandparents and relatives

In the near future, the wife will be the head of the family because the husband goes to work in other province and some husband (addicted to gambling or become alcoholic) lacks sense of family responsibility. The wife has more authority to decision making (Reference : Quantitative data from focus discussion group ).


 

Population Migration    

Population in the programme area has the tendency to move from agriculture to industrial section. As work place is far from home or is in other province, the population move out  and come back for agriculture work during May to October. Children are left with grandparents while their parents migrate to work in other provinces mostly Bangkok. Khun Tan district population move out more than move in and Phayamengrai district population has higher tendency of population migration.