Poverty Forces Children to Leave Home and Find Jobs Anywhere

Posted on 17 December 2008
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 591

“With the hands trying to pull and the legs trying to walk ahead, to drag a heavy cart with insufficient energy, drops of sweat flow across a face that is covered with a cotton scarf and with a hat over the head to shield off the heat of the sun. This is serious hard work - but when the hat and the cotton scarf are not covering the person, one recognizes that she is a teenage girl working in a brick kiln. Because of the poverty of her family, she decided to leave her hometown to work in a suburb of Phnom Penh. Because of such poverty, some children are forced to leave their home to find jobs in cities in order to earn money and send it to their parents and families at home.

“The girl who was dragging a cart with bricks to be put into a kilns said that she comes from Prey Veng to work in a brick kiln; she no longer goes to school. She said, ‘Sometimes I carry clay, sometimes I have to pound clay, and sometimes I drag carts. It is difficult to carry clay, it hurts my chest. If I have money, I send it to my mom to buy food.’

“Another girl who was cleaning up garbage in front of a house, selling rice soup, said that she was 13 years old, and she was sent by her mother from Kompong Chhnang to work in this house and earn Riel 70,000 per month [approx. US$17.50].

“This girl added that working here, she can rest three days per year – only during the Chinese new year. She said, ‘My mom comes to Phnom Penh to take the money. I came to sell soup. I get up at 6:00 a.m. and go to bed at 10:00 p.m. Sometimes I am very sleepy.’

“A woman from Prey Veng, who was waiting for her children in front of a brick kiln along National Road 6A, said that she always comes to take Riel 200,000 [approx. US$50] from the children every month.

“She continued to say that because of having no land for rice farming, she sent two children to work here to seek money to support her three other small children at home. She added, ‘We are poor and it is difficult, at home we cannot do rice farming, and we owe more and more debt; whenever there is work, I bring my children to work.’

“A boy, whose name is Sarak, 14, who comes from Kampot, washing cars around the Phsar Kandal market, said that because his parents at his hometown are poor, he had to stop going to school since the time he was in grade 3, in order to work as a car washer and now earn Riel 150,000 [approx. US$38] per month, and send it to his parents at home. He said, ‘Because we have no money, I had to find a job to earn money to buy rice and food.’

“The director of the Department of Child Labor, Mr. Veng Hieng, said that the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training has so far removed 22,000 children working in critical situations who can easily get harmed, such as working at brick kilns, salt fields, and as domestic servants, and provided them with the opportunity to go to school and to learn different skills. As for the parents of those children, the ministry offers them different jobs.

“Mr. Veng Hieng added, ‘We provide opportunities, both with materials aid and with some money, for those children to go to school, and if their parents are poor, we help to train them and provide them money as a loan to create jobs. If the children are too old to go to school any more, if they are over 15 years old, we train them in skills, and after the training, we provide them with certificates and contact enterprises or factories to accept them to work. For children, who can create their own jobs, if they can find their own jobs we grant them materials, because some children do not want to go to school. For example sewing - after we have trained them, they can also work as tailors at home, and if this is not possible, they can work in factories.

“The National Project Coordinator for the Elimination Child Labor, ILO-IPEC, Mr. Un Vuthy, said that according to a nationwide study, there are 250,000 children involved in critical forms of labor in seven provinces, and there are 16 kinds of critical jobs that children do.<“Mr. Un Vuthy added, ‘Children in critical situations of child labor are those working on salt fields, working at sea and fishing, at brick kilns, as domestic servants, at Poipet working as porters, and at rubber plantations.’

Note:
You can get access here to the following book - but also to other related studies:
Experiences and lessons learned on child labor monitoring: rubber, salt and fishing sectors in Cambodia - by Theng Chhorvirith, Seang Meng and Sao Kosal, Phnom Penh: ILO and Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, 2005, vii, 82 p.]

“To protect children, this organization strengthens policies and promotes the understanding about child labor. It also intervenes directly, which includes to remove children from certain places of work, offering education, including training in professional skills, as well as prevention, when children are in danger to fall into child labor situations. Another problem related to child labor is trafficking.

“The total number of children involved in work in these seven provinces is 1,500,000. The children are between 5 and 17 years old.

“The director of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights – LICADHO, Ms. Pong Chiv Kek [also known as Dr. Kek Galabru] said that not sending children to school is against the Constitution of Cambodia, and it is against the international UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that states should ‘make primary education compulsory and available free to all.’

“Mr. Veng Hieng said that the ministry, cooperating with non government organizations, sees that the number of children working in critical forms of labor declines, because their parents understand the importance of their children going to school.

“He suggested to children in hard work, ‘If those children want to go to school, they can contact the Ministry of Labor or the Education Department of their province, because we have much money, provided by the state for priority groups for the Education Departments, especially for the national plan Education for All. If there are cases of child labor, contact the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training!”

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #158, 14-15.12.2008
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:

Monday, 15 December 2008