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Child Labour

 

Poverty, rapid population growth in large cities, industrialisation, urbanisation, increassing trade liberlisation, and migration to urban centres has contributed to the growing numbers of child labourers.

Child labour is controversial subject in Vietnam. Little attention has traditionally been given to the problem due to widely held views that work can be positive for children. Although Vietnamese law prohibits the employment of children under 15 years of age, children still normally share the workload and household responsibilities with their family, both in rural and urban environments.

The working conditions child labourers face varies. Some children are ruthlessly exploited in gold mines, timber operations, cargo transport, and other hazardous occupations. In urban areas, many children are employed as domestic servants, assistants in restaurants or shops, street vendors, shoe shiners, sweepers and scavengers. Conditions of employment are arbitrarily fixed by employers, and often include long hours of work, wages far below the minimum rate, lack of basic facilities, physical and mental abuse, and assorted health hazards.

Despite the fact that Vietnamese law provide general protections for working children most lack adequate implementing regulations and specific punishment for people who exploit children. Moreover, these laws contain far too many loopholes to provide children with the level of legal protection they need. Beyond the current paucity of comprehensive regulations and penalties lies the additional problem that existing laws are not being aggressively enforced. The lack of effective inspection and enforcement mechanisms is allowing many violators to operate ad hoc, without sufficient accountability or punishment, and is therefore placing working children in a very disadvantageous position. While concern over the issue of child labour in Vietnam is growing, and attitudes are shifting, more concerted efforts are needed to protect Vietnamese child labourers from threats to their health, education, and development. This will ultimately require intensified efforts to address the factors giving rise to child labour for effective prevention, and to develop measures to protect and rehabilitate those who are already victims of exploitative forms of child labour.