Vietnam currently has 1.75 million child laborers.

The information was given at the Consultation Workshop on Law Development on Child Labor organized by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on March 21.

According to ILO estimates, there are currently about 152 million children aged 5-17 in the world who are child laborers. Child labor is still concentrated mainly in the agricultural sector (accounting for 70.9%). Nearly 1/5 of child laborers work in the service sector (accounting for 17.1%), while 11.9% of child laborers work in industry.

In Vietnam, the results of the National Child Labor Survey show that there are currently 1.75 million child laborers. The rate of child labor in Vietnam is lower than the world average and very close to the regional rate. Child labor exists especially in the informal economic sector, with about 1.7 million children, of whom up to 34% work more than 42 hours/week.

According to Mr. Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, children having to work early can negatively affect their health, development and learning potential, hindering them from enjoying better conditions, especially the quality of human resources in the future.

To reduce child labor, Mr. Diep said that Vietnam has issued a legal system and policies to ensure the realization of children's rights, especially the prevention and reduction of child labor. The Labor Code also has regulations on minimum working age, working hours and conditions for minors.

In addition, the 2016 Law on Children, passed by the National Assembly and effective from June 1, 2017, continues to have specific regulations on prohibited acts of child exploitation. In 2016, the Prime Minister also approved the Program for Prevention and Reduction of Child Labor for the period 2016-2020.

Mr. Diep said that in the context of integration and participation in free trade agreements, the implementation of international commitments on labor, including child labor in supply chains, will receive more and more attention. Therefore, reducing and eventually ending child labor must be changed from the awareness of children themselves, families, communities and employers.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Chang Hee Lee, Director of ILO Vietnam, said that child labor mainly exists in the rural and informal economic sectors, so it can be difficult to detect. In household production, children are often very vulnerable because their parents' income is not enough or informal family businesses do not have enough money to hire adult workers, so they have to let their children work without pay.

According to the ILO, combating child labor requires coordinated policies to support national laws on child labor, including good quality education, social protection, and decent work for parents./.