Around the reality of child labor

The "over and over again" story is still how to create conditions for children to play, study, and live at their proper age, with innocent dreams, instead of burdening them with hard work too early, but it seems that few places can do it.

"Gap" between data and reality

Summer is the time when seafood processing, shrimp and fish filleting establishments in coastal communes of Dien Chau district become bustling. In Dien Ngoc commune, which annually supplies the market with 3,000 - 5,000 tons of processed seafood, according to Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van Dung, no family is so poor that they have to force their children under 15 years old to work to make ends meet. However, during the summer or weekends when they don't have to go to school, many children of secondary school age go to shrimp and fish fillet processing establishments to ask for extra work to earn money for personal expenses.

The main work at these facilities is to steam the shrimp, peel them to dry them, and the peeled shrimp shells are collected and weighed to pay the workers, who receive about 10,000 VND/kg. If they work hard, each person can earn several hundred thousand a day. "Work such as peeling shrimp, scraping fish scales, and filleting is not hard work and has an attractive income, so children take advantage of the summer break to do extra work before starting the new school year," Mr. Dung added. For the people here, it is normal for their children to work extra at seafood processing sites, and it is even encouraged because "during peak season, adults work so hard that they don't have time to manage, so children working a little extra is better than going to the river or the sea, which is dangerous, or playing video games, or gathering in unhealthy ways," as shared by Ms. Dau Thi Men, a resident of Dien Ngoc.

In the mountainous area, in Muong Noc commune (Que Phong district), in recent years, every time the lychee season comes, many students on summer vacation come to pick fruit for hire in lychee gardens. Some students are only 10 years old but have done this job for 2-3 seasons. The lychee harvest usually takes 2-3 hours, the children need to climb ladders, climb trees to pick lychees and then tie them into bunches, each kg of lychee is paid 8,000 VND. The income is low, and there is a risk of injury if falling from the tree, but this is still an ideal summer job for students in mountainous areas with difficult conditions. According to Ms. Le Thi Nguyet - Head of the Department of Child Protection, Care and Gender Equality, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An, minors working in mountainous areas come from difficult circumstances and limited awareness of parents. Not only that, traditional cultural factors are also part of the reason why children in mountainous areas have to work early to help their families.

“There is no data on child labor” is the answer of many specialized departments related to this issue in localities, because they believe that child labor must be children under 15 years old who participate in heavy, regular labor with economic purposes... However, according to Circular 11/2013/TT-BLDTBXH dated June 11, 2013 promulgating the list of light jobs that can employ people under 15 years old, the examples of children in Nghe An just mentioned are not among them (!?). It is agreed that it is necessary to educate children about the awareness and value of labor, but at the age when “Knowing how to eat, sleep, and study is good”, labor, if any, should be light work, suitable for the physical and mental health of children, and take place under the support and supervision of adults.

Need to take more drastic action

In fact, it should be noted that in recent years, the situation of child labor in the province has received much attention, with quite effective methods in some localities. For example, in Quynh Thach commune (Quynh Luu district), before 2018, there was still a situation where junior high school students participated in labor and loading at clam casting yards (brick dash). Especially in the summer, when they did not have to go to school, a large number of students were present at the "labor market", waiting for trucks to enter the clam casting yard to receive the job of moving and loading bricks into position. Each truck carrying bricks required about 6-10 people to load, and was paid 120-150 thousand VND/truck. From the reflection of the press, the authorities stepped in, directing the locality to rectify the situation, and now the situation has improved.

Ms. Le Thi Nguyet added that as soon as cases that did not comply with current regulations were discovered, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs sent an official dispatch to districts and towns to end the use of child labor. Along with that, the Department coordinated with localities to organize training, propaganda, and thoroughly disseminate ideas to each business unit and family. Quynh Luu is one of the localities that have effectively applied measures to reduce child labor. In 2018, after receiving information about children working to unload clams at production workshops in Quynh Thach, the district implemented the model "Support and intervention to reduce child labor". The commune also established an inspection team, regularly and unexpectedly inspected 19 clam production facilities in the area to urge and remind about labor safety. As a result, in 2019, Quynh Thach basically prevented the situation of child labor.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh, owner of three clam packing facilities in Quynh Thach commune, who violated and was warned for allowing children to participate in loading and unloading bricks, said: “After many times of being reminded and disciplined by the authorities, the situation of child labor in the clam field has almost disappeared. However, to completely stop the use of children to unload clams is still a difficult thing, depending on the management of the family and the awareness of the children themselves. There are some students who still ride their bicycles along the road, stopping to work when they pass by any clam field where there is unloading work, mainly children from neighboring communes. The owner of the facility is not present at the field regularly, so it is difficult to manage the freelance porters.”

Child labor poses many potential safety risks, especially for children in disadvantaged areas who are not fully equipped with accident prevention skills. Although loading and unloading, seafood processing, etc. are considered not too strenuous, they still have a certain impact on the physical development of school-age children if they work for a long time. Not to mention, at production facilities, labor protection equipment is also inadequate, which can lead to some unexpected accidents.

Although there has been a joint effort by sectors and localities, it is clear that the work of reducing child labor still faces many difficulties, mainly stemming from the limited awareness of parents and the circumstances in some mountainous and coastal districts. In addition, it is also necessary to have extensive measures to educate children about their rights and obligations as well as the right direction for the future. To do that, the most necessary is the combination of the family, school and local authorities.

Children's development is almost only concerned with the physical aspect and lacks activities to protect and care for the soul. The age of 9-15 is the stage when each person forms, nurtures dreams and perfects their personality. Who they become as adults, what ideals they pursue, how they live and contribute depends a lot on the development of their souls during adolescence. Therefore, it can be said that building a healthy learning, playing and living environment for students is of utmost importance. They need to experience life in age-appropriate environments instead of spending time and effort in dusty brick kilns or hot shrimp steaming workshops.