Difficult problem in Nghi Loc

(Baonghean) -Since 2004, Nghi Loc has been one of the districts with the largest area of ​​agricultural land recovered in the province, leading to thousands of rural workers losing their jobs or being underemployed...

People fend for themselves

In 2004, Mr. Dang Van Lanh's family in Hamlet 4, Nghi Thuan Commune had more than 10 sao of rice land confiscated to serve the construction of Zone A of Nam Cam Industrial Park. With 131 million VND in compensation, in 2006, after paying off all debts, Mr. Lanh invested in sending his two sons to work in Taiwan. Thanks to their diligence and hard work, Mr. Lanh's two children both have a good and stable income, from which they send money back to their parents to build a house, buy furniture, and raise 3 younger siblings to study. From a poor household, Mr. Lanh's family has now become one of the wealthiest households in the village.

Also in Hamlet 4, Nghi Thuan Commune, Mr. Ha Van Men's family, after receiving compensation for 6 sao of rice fields, also sent their son to work abroad in Malaysia, from which the family rose up to escape poverty. Near Mr. Men's house, there is also Mr. Nguyen Van Dai's family, after the land was recovered, sent his son to learn welding and opened a workshop at home, providing a stable income.

However, in Hamlet 4, Nghi Thuan Commune, the above cases are only a very small number of households that have used compensation money effectively after their land was recovered. Hamlet chief Tran Van Loan said: “Hamlet 4 has 65 households whose land was recovered to serve the construction of Nam Cam Industrial Park and the construction of roads along the Cam River, each household had an average of more than 10 sao recovered. Many households after receiving compensation have rebuilt their houses, purchased furniture and appliances, so the amount of money left to change occupations is not much. Currently, more than 90% of the workers in the households whose land was recovered are having to go to the South to find work or do freelance jobs such as bricklayers, construction workers, small traders, porters..., with unstable incomes”. When asked if the district and commune authorities had any policies to support farmers in changing their occupations after their land was recovered, Mr. Thuan said that when households received compensation, they only heard that a part of it was to support changing occupations, but there was no announcement of any specific policy (!). According to Mr. Tran Nguyen Hoa - Chairman of Nghi Thuan Commune People's Committee, the whole commune had 408 households whose agricultural land was recovered with a total area of ​​76.5 hectares, the number of workers affected by land recovery was 658 people. Solving jobs for these workers encountered many difficulties, because most of them were unskilled workers, with low awareness of changing occupations and low skill levels, making it difficult to find new jobs. The commune also coordinated with a number of businesses to introduce some small-scale handicrafts such as rattan weaving, embroidery, etc., but they could not attract workers so they had to abandon them.

People in Nghi Long commune still cultivate on the recovered land areas.

Nghi Long is one of the communes with the largest area of ​​agricultural land recovered in Nghi Loc district with 76.32 hectares, affecting 1,246 workers from 251 households. The entire area of ​​recovered land is to serve the construction of Nam Cam Industrial Park. Up to now, this industrial park has 24 enterprises in operation, of which Nghi Long commune has many large companies and factories such as Hanoi Brewery, VNT Superfine Stone Powder Factory, NPK Synthetic Fertilizer Factory, Tien Phong Plastic Factory... but most of these units do not use local labor. Mr. Le Van Nghia - Chairman of Nghi Long Commune People's Committee, said: "The whole commune currently has more than 4,000 workers, of which workers aged 18-25 basically have jobs through labor export or working in companies and enterprises in the South..., the remaining workers aged 25-45 are unemployed or underemployed and most of them are clinging to side jobs. When working with the government on the issue of site clearance, enterprises all promised to recruit local workers, but when the production facilities were put into operation, they did not care, so up to now, the number of workers in the commune working in enterprises is less than 100 people. The commune leaders have discussed many times with representatives of enterprises and have also made many recommendations to higher levels, but the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved."

Unable to find jobs in factories in industrial zones and without government support in changing their occupations, in a situation where there is no or very little land left for production, thousands of workers from households whose land has been recovered in Nghi Loc have to struggle to support themselves and their families. However, only a few go abroad to work, mainly in middle-income markets such as Malaysia, Taiwan, the Middle East, Laos, etc., while the majority go to work as workers in the South, as construction workers, seasonal workers, or stay at home to open small businesses or cling to the little remaining agricultural land. Also because many workers whose land has been recovered have no or lack jobs, while many areas of recovered land are abandoned, along with the lack of uniform compensation policies for site clearance, in recent years, people have returned to farming on areas of agricultural land that have been recovered but not yet leveled. For example, in Hamlet 1, Nghi Long Commune, there are 131 households and all of them have agricultural land recovered with a total area of ​​about 20 hectares - accounting for more than 50% of the hamlet's agricultural land. People have returned to farming on more than 5 hectares of recovered but unused land. More specifically, in Hamlet 2, Nghi Thuan Commune, due to the reason of the large difference in compensation between different times, between the commune and other localities as well as not being provided with suitable jobs after land recovery, people still cultivate on more than 90% of the recovered land area (about more than 25 hectares). When businesses need land to implement projects, people ask for more compensation, making the land clearance problem difficult and complicated...

In addition, in communes where large areas of agricultural land have been reclaimed, due to lack of jobs, social evils and insecurity have increased, especially drug addiction and dog theft. At the end of 2011, Nghi Loc District Police coordinated with Nghi Xa and Nghi Long communes to hold conferences to review 20 dog thieves who were young people residing in the two communes. Mr. Vo Thanh Long - Head of Nghi Long Commune Police said: "In recent years, due to lack of jobs, the number of young people in the commune participating in dog thefts in the district has increased dramatically, most of whom are drug addicts. After the review conference, more than half of the dog thieves went to the South to find work due to shame, but a few of the remaining subjects continued to "go back to their old ways". In 2012, most of the dog thefts in Nghi Loc district discovered by the authorities and local people involved young people living in Nghi Long, and among them was Hoang Cong Hiep who was beaten to death by local people in Nghi Xuan commune on October 12, 2012.

Need a synchronized solution

Mr. Nguyen Van Ba ​​- Head of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghi Loc district, said: Up to now, 4,483 workers (accounting for 5% of the total number of workers in the district) from households whose land was recovered in Nghi Loc have been supported to change their occupations according to Decisions 2345/QD.UB - DC dated September 18, 2004 and 74/2005/QD.UBND dated August 31, 2005 of the Provincial People's Committee with support levels from VND 8,000 - VND 15,000/m2. However, this support fund is paid directly to the workers and the district does not know how this money is used.

Mr. Ba also said: “On the district side, in order to change the occupations of the laborers of households whose land was recovered, the district People's Committee issued Official Letter No. 685/UBND - NVLĐ requesting the communes to review and make a list of households whose agricultural land was recovered from 30% or more of the total assigned area, report the number of laborers who need to learn a trade, widely propagate the form and content of training (free training, support for vocational training materials, open on-site classes...). In recent years, the district has brought occupations such as bamboo and rattan weaving, mushroom growing, flowers, ornamental plants, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine... to communes with large areas of recovered land, but due to low income and unstable output, the effectiveness has not been much. By 2009, only 2 communes registered to learn a trade with the district, Nghi Xa and Nghi Long, but only... 13 people registered to learn 6 occupations! Because the number of students is too small and dispersed, even though The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has allocated vocational training funds to the district, but the district vocational guidance center (now Nghi Loc district economic and technical vocational college) cannot open classes.

Regarding loans for job creation, the district has coordinated with the social policy bank to disburse to 124 households, with an average of 5 million VND/household; supported labor export for 102 workers, with a total loan of 897 million VND; however, the district does not know how this loan is used (!?). Regarding on-site job creation for workers in localities with large areas of recovered land, the district annually organizes conferences to invite businesses located in the area to discuss vocational training and job creation for workers, but currently the number of workers accepted to work at businesses located in the area accounts for a very small proportion, because the majority of workers are low-skilled, not meeting the requirements of businesses. Moreover, the number of workers whose land is recovered is large, but businesses in industrial parks in the district do not employ many workers, on average only a few dozen workers, the largest enterprise employing 400 people".

Commenting on this issue, Mr. Tran Huu Lam - Vice Chairman of Nghi Loc District People's Committee, in charge of culture and society, admitted: "The biggest difficulty at present is that the cultural and technical level of rural workers in Nghi Loc is currently quite low, with more than 60% of them not having received vocational training. Moreover, due to a number of objective factors, the district's vocational training capacity to create new jobs cannot keep up with and does not meet the needs of industrial and service development. Therefore, the ability to change careers and job opportunities for rural workers whose land has been recovered is very low. In addition, job information and transaction channels in rural areas have not yet developed, the role of job placement organizations is still vague, government organizations in some places have not really paid due attention, and people often take care of themselves, so rural workers often look for jobs through family, relatives, friends, etc. In addition, localities with recovered land have not yet dynamic, flexible in converting crop and livestock structure to increase income for people. But on the other hand, it is also necessary to frankly admit that currently, because the workers whose land has been recovered still have a heavy mentality of small farmers, they are not proactive and active in learning a trade to find new jobs, are afraid of labor discipline, so they do not want to work for enterprises in industrial parks but only like to find freelance work in Vinh City... All these reasons make the shift in the rural labor structure of the district, which is already slow, after the recovery of agricultural land, the surplus of agricultural labor is even greater, facing even more challenges".

It can be said that the current situation of employment for workers whose agricultural land has been recovered in Nghi Loc is also the common situation in some localities in the province today. This stems from shortcomings in compensation and site clearance, in the work of mobilizing and propagating career conversion, in vocational training, in coordination between local authorities and enterprises... Therefore, to solve this problem, the reality requires the province and district to have synchronous solutions with practical policies such as reviewing the planning of industrial park construction projects that require agricultural land recovery; having a satisfactory compensation policy to properly resolve the relationship of interests between investors and households whose land has been recovered; improving the cultural level and skills of rural workers; developing a system of on-site vocational training facilities, strengthening linkages and socialization of vocational training, linking enterprises and labor-using establishments with vocational training establishments; Promote economic restructuring suitable for each region, develop rural infrastructure, develop information systems, provide labor market consultation, widely promote support programs, introduce jobs in rural areas...

According to the report of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghi Loc district, from 2002 to present, Nghi Loc has 5 communes with agricultural land recovered to serve the construction of Nam Cam, Truong Thach and Dong Tro industrial parks and other infrastructure works, namely Nghi Xa, Nghi Long, Nghi Quang, Nghi Thuan, Nghi Truong and Nghi Thach communes. The total area of ​​recovered land is 251.8 hectares, the number of households whose land is recovered is 2,618. Of these, Nghi Xa is the commune with the largest area of ​​recovered land with 161.56 hectares. The whole commune has 1,139 households whose land is recovered, mainly agricultural land, of which about 400 households have 70 - 100% of their land recovered. The number of workers in households whose land is recovered is more than 2,100 people, accounting for about 67% of the total number of workers in the whole commune.

Article and photos: Minh Quan