Description:
Executive Summary:
"The growing domestic and international attention being paid to child
labor in Burma, also known as Myanmar, signals a vital step in the
country?s reform and development process. The advent of new
funding to research the scope of the problem, proposed amendments to
labor laws, and popularized documentaries exposing the lives of working
children have indicated fresh interest in revealing and reducing the
incidence of child labor.
However, the catalyst for this report was sparked by observations
that these proliferating activities and discussions are often largely
restricted to urban areas, particularly regarding the well-known prevalence
of Burma?s ?teashop boys.? While urban forms of child labor warrant
immediate and effective interventions, the ambiguity that shrouds less
visible forms of the practice, especially occurring in rural ethnic villages
and communities tucked against the country?s vast borderline,
necessitates targeted illumination. During several interviews conducted for
this report, civil society members and child protection officers described
child labor in Burma as vastly under-researched, and said that accurate
data from the country?s peripheral areas is almost nonexistent.
Almost half of the occurrences of child labor documented for this
report were found in agricultural practices, primarily on rubber plantations
and betel nut farms. An equivalent number of children interviewed were
working in furniture factories, waiting tables or washing dishes in small
restaurants, or searching garbage for recyclables to redeem. Others still
were engaged as day laborers, piecing together daily wages by clearing
weeds on plantations, gathering grasses to make brooms, or working as
cowhands or woodcutters.
Income scarcity and food insecurity were central themes collected in
many family narratives, but were also often rooted in other fundamental
social issues. Poverty was not necessarily the sole cause of child labor, but
rather the two were jointly symptomatic of poor access to education and
healthcare, landlessness, migration, and the effects of decades of armed
conflict and human rights abuses. Children, and particularly young girls,
were also subject to social and gender norms that contributed to their
entry into the workforce. The reduced likelihood that working children will
complete their education and the increased risks associated with labor
performed during children?s early developmental stages were found to
feed directly back into these same family burdens that led to child labor.
In short, the many interconnecting social issues, economic and labor
policies, and community histories surrounding child labor in rural areas are
beyond the scope of this report to fully catalogue or evaluate. Instead, the
research presented herein telescopes in on a very small but highly
underreported area of child labor, and aims to amplify the voices and cast
a light on the experiences of rural working children in Mon areas."
Source/publisher:
Woman and Child Rights Project (WCRP)
Date of Publication:
2013-11-00
Date of entry:
2013-11-21
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
- Human Rights
- Discrimination
- Race or Ethnicity: Discrimination based on
- Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations
- Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against specific groups
- Discrimination against the Mon
- Women and Child Rights Project (WCRP)
- Women and Child Rights Project, home page, articles and reports
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
2.25 MB