Participants in a workshop in Hà Nội yesterday recommended legal regulations on child labour be amended. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Participants in a workshop in Hà Nội yesterday recommended legal regulations on child labour be amended. 

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyễn Thị Hà said ‘Generation Safe & Healthy’ was the theme of World Day Against Child Labour (June 12) this year. 
She noted Việt Nam has promulgated several regulations to prevent child labour and realise the Sustainable Development Goals, including aiming to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour. 
However, solving the child labour issue, especially protecting children from strenuous, hazardous and dangerous labour, needs participation and co-ordination of all partners in society, from State agencies, businesses, trade unions, social organisations to families and the community, Hà added. 
Minoru Ogasawara, chief advisor of the project ‘Technical Support for Enhancing the National Capacity to Prevent and Reduce Child Labour in Việt Nam’ (ENHANCE), said to eliminate child labour, it is necessary to have a solid legal foundation, regularly update the list of dangerous and hazardous jobs, consolidate the law enforcement mechanism with the engagement of relevant sides and strengthen occupational safety and health management. 
Programmes to teach occupational safety and health at schools are also needed to educate students on occupational risks, he said. 
Chief of the child protection section at UNICEF Việt Nam Lê Hồng Loan said the country should improve educational quality to reduce the dropout rate among children while increasing intervention measures and support for low-income families since poverty is one of the main causes of child labour. 
She also called for a legal framework and policies in line with international standards, banning all the worst forms of child labour and policies with multidimensional approaches. 
At the workshop, Director of the labour ministry’s Department of Child Affairs Đặng Hoa Nam said in the future, the ministry will revise the regulations on child and adolescent labour in the Labour Code, continue the national survey on child labour and push ahead with the Government’s programme on child labour prevention and elimination and the ENHANCE project. 
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are about 152 million child labourers in the world at present. 
Working at an early age causes serious consequences, including affecting children’s physical and mental development and preventing their access to suitable education. It also harms socio-economic development, especially the quality of future human resources. 
In Việt Nam, the national survey of child labour in 2012 showed that there were about 1.75 million child labourers nationwide, making up 9.6 per cent of children aged between five and 17.—VNS