Survey aims to tackle child labour in Vietnam

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An estimated 9.6 per cent of children aged 5-17in Vietnam are child labourers, as released by findings from the first National Child Labour Survey launched in Hanoi on March 14.

There are 1.75 million Vietnamese children working in the country and two in every five are under age 15. This is below the legal minimum working age set by national law and International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines.

Most child labourers live in the countryside, work in agriculture and are unpaid family workers.

Carried out in 2012, the survey of 50,460 households indicated that about one-third of child labourers, or nearly 569,000 children have to work an average of more than 42 hours per week. Working long hours affects their schooling and most of them do not even attend.

Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said the number of children in special circumstances, including working children, is a challenge. He added that Vietnam has been doing its best to take preventative measures and intervene to protect those children to create a healthy environment for every child.

The concept of child labour does not cover all working children. Households still play an important role in the economy and the labour force remains underdeveloped in Vietnam. The government allows children of certain age groups to do some types of work and work on a certain timetable that allows for the improvement of their education, health and development.

According to the national survey, one in every six children work in some capacity or another, with more boys working than girls. As mentioned before, a third work due to family necessity and another fourth work because of economic circumstances.

“Child labour should be eliminated as it deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity,” said ILO Vietnam country director Gyorgy Sziraczki, who added, “This is a process that takes time and with the first national date on child labour, in addition to education laws that specify compulsory secondary education, Vietnam has shown its determination to fight child labour, especially in its worst forms.”

The report estimated that in 2012, 168 million children aged 5-17 worldwide are child labourers, accounting for 10.6 per cent of the child population. The rate for Asia and the Pacific is 9.3 per cent.