Children in Sa Binh Commune, Kon Tum Province work as gold panners. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed a US$25 million plan to fight child labour in Viet Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Hoa.

HÀ NỘI — An estimated 5.3 per cent of the 5-17 year olds in Việt Nam, or over 1 million children, are engaged in child labour, with more than half of them working in ‘hazardous conditions,’ according to Việt Nam’s second National Child Labour Survey on Friday.

Conducted by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) in coordination with the General Statistics Office with technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), the rate of child labour in Việt Nam is approximately 2 percentage points lower than the regional average for Asia and the Pacific.

 “Compared to findings from the first National Child Labour Survey conducted in 2012, the latest figures point to an encouraging decrease in the prevalence of working children, which dropped from 15.5 per cent of children in 2012 to 9.1 per cent in 2018,” said MOLISA Deputy Minister Nguyễn Thị Hà. 

A total of 58.8 per cent of working children in Việt Nam are engaged in child labour, undertaking work that has been prohibited either because of the age of the child concerned, the number of hours worked or the nature of the tasks involved. Child labour encompasses work that is detrimental to the physical or mental health of a child, and negatively affects their schooling or development.

In line with global trends, 84 per cent of children in child labour in Việt Nam are concentrated in rural areas and just over half of them work in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector. Other sectors where child labour is prevalent include the service sector and the industry and construction sector. Notably 40.5 per cent of children in child labour work as unpaid family workers.

“Child labour tends to take place in informal household enterprises further down manufacturing and production supply chains, which makes it difficult to detect. Việt Nam’s increased participation in global trade compels Vietnamese businesses to ensure that their supply chains are free from child labour in order to compete on the global market,” ILO Việt Nam Director, Chang Hee Lee, said.

The survey estimates that nearly 520,000 children in Việt Nam are engaged in hazardous child labour, or work which poses significant risks to a child’s health, safety or morale. Children in hazardous child labour are more likely to work in the industry and construction sector, with a lower participation rate in the agricultural sector compared with children in child labour. Hours of work for children in hazardous child labour tend to be high, with 40.6 per cent of children in this group working for over 40 hours per week.

In addition to the health and safety risks of long hours of work, the survey highlights the adverse impacts of economic engagement on children’s school attendance, with the percentage of children in school decreasing as the intensity of economic engagement rises. Compared to the national average school attendance of 94.4 per cent, only half of Vietnamese children in child labour attend school.

For children engaged in hazardous child labour, this figure is even lower, at just 38.6 per cent. However, figures indicate a positive trend in the overall percentage of working children attending school, which has risen to 63 per cent compared to just 43.6 per cent in 2012. 

Although survey findings indicate promising signs of progress between 2012 and 2018, the risk of child labour has now been intensified by the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, in Việt Nam and around the world, more families are being forced to resort to child labour as a strategy to cope with loss of income and livelihood constraints resulting from disruptions to global supply chains and social distancing measures.

Also in the wake of the devastating floods and successive storms that have affected the central region of the country this year, this risk has further intensified for affected families, who face the double burden of the pandemic and climate-related catastrophe.

Actions must be taken to mitigate the detrimental effects of the pandemic and the increasing threat of natural disasters, which risk jeopardising hard won gains in combatting child labour, and may lead to a rise in new cases. As such, national efforts must be urgently accelerated towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 to end child labour in all its forms. As a pathfinder country for Global Alliance 8.7, Việt Nam is committed to conducting research, sharing knowledge and driving innovation towards this goal.

To underscore the pressing need to step up efforts to eradicate child labour, now more than ever, the year 2021 has been designated by the UN General Assembly as the international Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. To meet this challenge and fulfil Viet Nam’s role as pathfinder country, the Government has developed a roadmap towards SDG Target 8.7 in conjunction with the country’s upcoming National Action Plan to prevent and reduce child labour for the 2021-2025 period. — ILO/VNS