About Vietnam

Economic development, poverty and lacking social protection systems

Vietnam has made impressive economic progress between 2002 and 2014, reducing poverty from nearly 39 per cent to 3 per cent. An integral part of the country’s economic growth has been its social development. Vietnam has achieved many of the Millennium Development Goals, notably eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality. However, development has not been evenly spread across the country, resulting in large rural-urban and inter-regional disparities. In particular, ethnic minorities, people from poor rural areas and urban migrants struggle to make ends meet in the fast-growing urban centres.

Vietnam lacks a modern social protection system capable of providing adequate unemployment insurance, cash transfers and other forms of social assistance and security to the working poor and near-poor. This has been highlighted by the impact of the global pandemic. The effectiveness of social protection programmes for children is hampered by limited coverage and accessibility, including for children in remote or minority areas and children with disabilities. 

Child labour

The definition of child labour we use is: “Any form of work performed by children under the age of 15 that interferes with their right to formal quality education, and/or that is mentally, physically, socially and morally dangerous and harmful for their health and development; as well as any form of hazardous work performed by children between 15 and 18 years old.” 

In general, children in child labour are not a homogeneous group. They differ in age, gender and background. Some do paid work, others unpaid; some are self-employed, others receive wages. Many children work in the informal sector, an area of economic activity that is largely invisible and unregulated by governments. This makes child labourers vulnerable to all forms of exploitation: very low wages, excessive working hours, unhygienic or abusive working conditions, retention of identity documents, debt bondage. 

Child labour in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Thap province

In Vietnam, the WNCB programme is deployed at national and sub-national levels, in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Thap Province.

In Vietnam, more than 1 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are engaged in child labour. This equates to over five per cent of children in this age group. Of these child labourers, more than half work in hazardous jobs and about half do not attend school. 

Poverty, lack of access to basic services and lack of awareness of children’s rights, including education, are the underlying causes of child labour in Vietnam. Migration, especially from rural to urban areas, significantly increases the risk of child labour. 

Migrant worker families come from a range of rural areas, including Dong Thap. In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), 36% of the population are internal (rural-urban) migrants with temporary residence status and no permanent registration (“Ho khau” in Vietnamese). If a family lives outside its registered area, they cannot access government services or may be forced to pay a higher fee. This is an extra burden that poor internal migrants, who are already vulnerable, cannot afford. As a result, migrant children are less likely to attend school and more likely to work as child labourers to support their families. This is a common situation for migrant worker families.

Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta is highly vulnerable to climate change, particularly to prolonged flooding, and is experiencing high levels of migration. Children and the elderly are often left behind as young people and adults move from farming to the city in search of work. The risk of dropping out of school is high for children left behind, but also for those who migrate from rural areas to the city. These children are at high risk of becoming involved in various forms of child labour. 

There are many other social factors that affect children’s education in Vietnam and push children into child labour, such as lack of residential registration, birth certificates, bullying, violence at school and unfriendly learning environments. 

Children at work

The type of work that the majority of children are involved in is domestic work (i.e. housework, gardening/agricultural work or unpaid help in a household business of any kind) or work in restaurants, supermarkets, factories, etc. In Dong Thap, the work they do is predominantly agricultural. 

Children who live with grandparents or relatives, away from their parents, are under greater pressure to earn money and are likely to drop out of school earlier than other children. In both Dong Thap and Ho Chi Minh, young adults are most likely to be in work outside the home for wages, salaries or commissions.

Emergency child protection services for migrant and street children

Migrant and street children are more likely to be involved in child labour than children from other social groups. The Vietnamese government and local NGOs have set up a number of ‘open houses’ for migrant and street children as part of the emergency child protection service. When they are not working, these open houses are safe places where they can come to study or play. Save the Children provides support and training to improve the quality of education and care in these Open Houses. 

The open houses are the first step in helping children who have dropped out of school. The next step in the support chain is a system of informal education, which is often organised by religious organisations such as Catholic churches or Buddhist pagodas. Informal classes provide opportunities for children who want to go back to school but are too old to enter formal education at their level. It is positive that street children, migrant children and disadvantaged children can attend these informal classes, but the quality is not as good as in formal schools. Often the informal classes are supported by formal schools in the area. Save the Children is working to improve the quality of this education. 

Legal framework concerning child labour in Vietnam

There is no clear consensus definition of child labour in Vietnam. However, Vietnam has laid the groundwork for effective and sustainable action against child labour and is committed to taking action against child labour through laws, policies and institutional support for their implementation. The Government of Vietnam has ratified five conventions directly related to child labour. 

In 2016, the government launched a programme to support the prevention and reduction of child labour. It also addressed the need for regulations and legal mechanisms to protect children and adolescents involved in child labour in the informal sector. On 27 May 2021, the government approved the next phase of this programme, which sets targets for the prevention, detection, intervention and support of children in cases of illegal child labour and for children at high risk of becoming child labourers.

Vietnam’s legal and policy framework on child labour is comprehensive. This is demonstrated by the special chapter on child labour in the amended 2019 Labour Code and the National Programme for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour. 

However, child labour remains a sensitive issue in Vietnam. Therefore, WNCB’s programme activities include high-level advocacy and awareness-raising on the issues, and collaboration with key stakeholders at national and sub-national levels. 

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is the lead agency for children’s rights. It has the state management function of the national child protection system and child labour and as such is the most strategic government partner of our national level partners. There is an opportunity for change for children and communities through institutional capacity building of the government.

WNCB partners working in Vietnam

Three WCNB-partners are active in Vietnam: Unicef, Save the Children and the Centre. They work together to strengthen legal frameworks against child labour and ensuring sound implementation of policies, both at local and national level.