Students in Ea Bong Primary School in Krong Ana district in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak (Photo: VNA) Dak Lak (VNA) - Le VanHong, a member of the H’Mong minority in Krong Bong district of the CentralHighland province of Dak Lak, had decided to send his two sons, aged 10 and 15,to work for a garment factory in the south.
He accepted the fact that Le Van Cai and Le Van Khuong would dropout of school so they could bring home a few million VND and helpease the family’s hardship.
However, after two months Hôong had to borrow money to bring hiskids home as they could not stand the harsh working conditions. The two havegone back to school in Hoa Phong commune, but many other children are not aslucky.
Le Van Toa, another father from Krong Bong district’s Hoa Phong communesaid that he was worried about his 13-year-old daughter working far fromhome. She called him several times, and spoke about the hard life she had tosuffer.
“She told me that she worked from 6am to midnight, and had onlytwo hours off for meals,” he said.
Nguyen Van Tam, chairman of the Cu Pui commune’s People’sCommittee, said these ethnic minority students pay reduced school fees, butsome parents let their children drop out of school to earn money.
Most of children have to work for a whole year to make 9 millionVND (395 USD), and only get the money once at the end of that year.
Tran Ngoc Hung, deputy head of the district’s Division of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs, said that since 2014 students were beingsent to work at industrial zones or restaurants in the south. This year, asmany as 135 students aged 12 to 16 had quit school and 42 of them werereportedly sent to work in HCM City.
Hung said the division, in co-operation with local authorities,has disseminated information about child labour law and penalties for droppingout of school to all households in the district, but the problem persists.
In 2014, more than 20 ethnic minority people in Cu Kuin districtwere found working in recruitment of child labourers for enterprises in thesouth. As many as 206 students from primary and secondary schools in Krong Bong,Lak, Cu Kuin and Krong Pac district, dropped out of school to work.
Tu Thi Khanh, head of the provincial Department of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs’s Children Protection and Caring Unit, said thatmost of the children were between 13 and 15 and were vulnerable to social evilssuch as prostitution, abuse, drug use and human trafficking.-VNA
VNA
