For Vietnamese children to have a happy childhood

This morning (January 23), the General Statistics Office ( Ministry of Planning and Investment ) held a workshop to announce the results of the 2023 child labor survey in Hanoi.

Overview of the workshop announcing the results of the 2023 child labor survey. (Photo: Kim Khanh)

At the workshop, General Director of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Thi Huong said that Vietnam's population has surpassed the threshold of 100 million people, making it the 16th most populous country in the world .

Vietnam is also in the golden population period with the proportion of the population from 15 to 64 years old accounting for 67.4% (for every 2 people of working age, there is one dependent person). This is a basic and very important condition to help Vietnam have enough human resources to develop strongly and sustainably.

The population of children between the ages of 5 and 17 in Vietnam is also very large; with about 21 million children, accounting for about 20.6% of the total population. In fact, children are the foundation of family happiness and the future of the country.

From the results of the survey, Vietnam has a comprehensive picture of the current situation of child labor and child labor in Vietnam in the period from 2012-2023.

The information obtained is very basic and complete, such as: child population size; child labor size; child labor scale; school attendance status of child laborers; health problems child laborers encounter while working...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong emphasized: “We believe that this will be a valuable source of information for the Party, Government , ministries, branches, localities, and organizations to develop and implement programs and policies to prevent and reduce child labor; as well as provide a basis for information users to carry out research activities and other tasks.

From there, contribute to taking better care of children's development, so that Vietnamese children have a happy childhood and Vietnam has a potential next generation".

Reporting on some key results on the current situation of children participating in labor and child labor in Vietnam in 2023, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Deputy Director of the Department of Population and Labor Statistics (General Statistics Office) said that in 2023, the population of children aged 5 to 17 in Vietnam was 20.6 million, accounting for 20.6% of the total national population.

Of which, children in the 5-11 age group are 11.8 million people, accounting for 57.2%; children in the 12-14 and 15-17 age groups are 4.7 million people and 4.1 million people, accounting for 22.9% and 19.9%, respectively. Children living in urban areas account for 35.0%, and in rural areas account for 65%.

Data from the 2023 labor force survey shows that the most important activity for children is “going to school”. Of the total 20.6 million children aged 5-17, 19.9 million are “going to school”, accounting for 96.4%, of which 94.8% are “only going to school” and only 1.6% are “both studying and working”.

Vietnam's remarkable achievements in economic growth, employment, school attendance rates of children aged 5 to 17, and poverty reduction in recent years have contributed to reducing the rate of child labor. (Source: UNICEF)

The proportion of children attending school in urban areas is slightly higher than in rural areas, 97.5% compared to 95.8%. There is no discrimination against girls in their opportunity to attend school, with the proportion of girls attending school being 0.8 percentage points higher than that of boys, 96.8% compared to 96.0%.

Nationwide, there are 731,600 children participating in child labor. Most of the child laborers are residing in rural areas (84.6%) and are mainly concentrated in the Northern Midlands and Mountains and the North Central and Central Coast regions (52.7%). The number of child laborers in the remaining 4 regions accounts for only 47.3%.

The child labor participation rate is 3.5%, which means that out of 100 children aged 5 to 17, nearly 4 are engaged in labor, a decrease of 5.6 percentage points compared to 2018 when the child labor participation rate was 9.1%.

Vietnam's remarkable achievements in economic growth, employment, school attendance rates of children aged 5 to 17, and poverty reduction in recent years have contributed to reducing the rate of child labor.

Among the 6 socio-economic regions, the Northern Midlands and Mountains is the region with the highest rate of child labor in the country. In this region, for every 100 children, there are about 7 children participating in labor.

Next is the Central Highlands with 6.4% of children participating in labor. This figure is lowest in the Red River Delta, less than 1%.

More than two-thirds (70.6%) of child labourers are between 15 and 17 years old. Children aged 12 to 14 account for 23.8% of the total number of child labourers. This figure is 5.6% for children aged 5 to 11 years old.

"The average income of child laborers is about 3 million VND/person/month, less than half of the average income of workers aged 15 and over (7.1 million VND/person/month). This shows that the average income that child laborers generate is low while working has deprived them of the opportunity to study and prepare better knowledge for the future," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai.

Not only that, the work that children are doing also negatively affects their health and development. Therefore, moving towards eliminating child labor is necessary, very important and requires attention from managers.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/de-tre-em-viet-nam-co-mot-tuoi-tho-hanh-phuc-302000.html