Economic crisis in Southeast Asia leads to increased child labour

Photo credit: Christine Redmond

As livelihoods in South East Asia continue to be suspended for many communities due to the current global pandemic, the most vulnerable populations are the hardest hit. Children are the first to be affected and are increasingly at risk of working.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that the COVID-19 crisis will threaten the jobs of 68 million workers across Asia if it continues until September. This situation, coupled with the massive school closures we are witnessing at the moment, is unprecedented in the region. While the scale of the impact remains to be seen, one thing is certain: as global poverty increases, so will the prevalence of child labour.

Poverty rates are rising

This crisis threatens to reverse decades of progress in the fight against poverty and inequality. The UN notes that " the adverse effects of this pandemic will not be evenly distributed [...]. They are likely to be most damaging for children in the poorest countries, and in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those already in disadvantaged or vulnerable situations ."

In Vietnam, the effects of COVID-19 could double poverty rates from 18% to 31% among households with income from manufactured or imported goods (UNICEF). The dependence of the country's economy on tourism, agriculture and the informal sector makes it one of the most vulnerable economies to global crises. The Cambodian economy faces a similar situation, with garment factories suspending production and exports and tourism in steep decline. Indeed, the loss of revenue from the tourism sector alone in Cambodia is estimated at around $3 billion this year.

Child labour as a coping mechanism

As a result, child labour could become an important coping mechanism for households falling into poverty due to COVID-19. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Oun Kim Ly, a mother of three, says she is struggling to meet the needs of her children. " I used to earn $2.50 a day collecting plastic from the streets, but now the market has disappeared and I can't get the same income "she explains.

From 6 p.m. to midnight each day, Ly brings her children with her while she works, hoping that not only will her children be safer with her than at home, but that together they can sell enough plastic to cover their daily needs.

Ly's neighbour, Hoat Chana, is also struggling and has benefited from our emergency food distribution project for the past three months. Chana has six children to feed, aged from six months to 12 years. Chana's husband is a tuk-tuk driver but since tourism has dropped, he is no longer able to work. " We cannot take care of all our children, explains Channa. Some of them sell food, so we have enough money "she adds.

Children's right to education must be respected

The longer schools remain closed, the more likely children are to fall into work and never catch up. In Cambodia, we anticipate the need to scale up our existing accelerated learning programmes and remedial classes to ensure that children who are most likely to drop out or not return to school get the support they need.

School closures and rising poverty rates also increase the vulnerability of children to trafficking and girls to early marriage. As economies grind to a halt and job losses mount, there is a risk that traffickers will take advantage of the situation and offer false employment opportunities to the most vulnerable. In the face of this danger, we believe that education is the best tool to raise awareness about the risks and consequences of human trafficking. This is why we have resumed our activities in Vietnam to address this issue.

We have also resumed our existing projects aimed at creating better livelihood opportunities for ethnic minority populations in Laos and Vietnam - where schools have now re-opened. We believe that a focus on vocational skills, career guidance and livelihoods will be essential to building more egalitarian and inclusive societies in the aftermath of the pandemic, and to helping vulnerable populations build resilience to crises.

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