Children of industrial workers lack everything, parents have to send them back to the countryside.

Children of industrial workers lack almost everything. Many parents have to send their children back to the countryside, without the means to provide nutritious meals.

Representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation share about the lives of workers in export processing zones and industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: VU THUY

These are some results of a survey on the lives of children of workers in industrial zones. These results were just presented at a workshop to solicit opinions on the draft project "Supporting workers in industrial zones and export processing zones in child care and education" of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor .

Income is not enough to cover expenses, children cannot live with parents

The survey was conducted by the Women's Committee (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) in 5 provinces and cities with many export processing zones and industrial parks: Hai Phong, Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City and Long An as a basis for developing the above project.

Accordingly, the percentage of surveyed workers with income under 6 million VND/month is 15.1%, income from 6-8 million VND/month is 38.5%, income from 8-10 million VND/month is 26.9%, and over 10 million VND/month is only 9.5%.

31.1% of industrial park workers surveyed said their children had to live with their parents in rented rooms under 15 square ^meters . These types of rented rooms are mostly cramped, dilapidated, lacking light and space.

The difficult living conditions of workers affect the care and upbringing of children. Only 26% of workers surveyed said that their houses were airy and had space for children to play.

Also according to a 2024 survey conducted by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, 59% of workers do not have a television, 59.2% do not have a washing machine, 91% do not have a computer, 63.1% do not have air conditioning. Only 17.7% of workers responded that their living area has a playground for children.

The percentage of workers with savings is only 3.2%, the rest have to spend frugally, save and are not enough to cover living expenses up to 72.2%.

In their relationship with their children, migrant workers face many difficulties when sending their children back to their hometowns, not having the conditions to be close to, care for and raise them, and limited knowledge and skills in child care and raising.

Likewise, without adequate parental support, children have difficulty accessing social services, health care, recreation and entertainment.

Up to 40% of female migrant workers have children of nursery and kindergarten age, and nearly 30% of female workers with children in general education have to send their children back to their hometowns for relatives to raise and care for (survey results in 2023 in 10 provinces and cities).

Workers' and laborers' lives still face many difficulties - Photo: PHUONG NHI

Lack of childcare facilities and kindergartens for workers' children

Ms. Do Hong Van - Head of the Women's Union (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) - said that by the end of 2023, the whole country had 431 industrial parks with about 4.16 million workers, mainly young immigrant workers, with low living standards, a lot of overtime, and an unstable life.

Migrant worker families mainly live in rented houses, and the lack of kindergartens and classrooms near where parents live and work makes choosing schools for their children difficult.

Many workers send their children to private facilities that do not guarantee quality. Many cases of child abuse have resulted in increased risk of child abuse and violence.

"The project to support workers in child care and raising comes from the need to improve child care and raising conditions for workers and laborers as well as the role and responsibility of trade unions in supporting workers in child care and raising," Ms. Van commented.

The difficulty in childcare, kindergartens and schools for workers’ children was of great concern to delegates. Ms. Van said that preschool education in industrial zones with many workers has been given priority for development, as is preschool education in remote areas.

However, this is still a difficult problem to solve because it is related to land planning for building schools and kindergartens in export processing zones and industrial parks.

Students volunteer to be tutors in blue shirts to teach workers' children for free at boarding houses and worker accommodation areas in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: CT

For example, in Dong Nai, there are currently 33 industrial parks in operation with 60% of immigrants, but there are only 6 public kindergartens sponsored by companies and only 4 businesses in the industrial parks have built nurseries and kindergartens.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the lack of preschool facilities that provide after-hours childcare when businesses organize overtime, especially in businesses in export processing zones and industrial parks, has been and continues to be a concern for workers.

Public facilities only meet about 15% of the demand, the remaining 85% must rely on private facilities. Not to mention that tuition fees at private facilities, if quality is guaranteed, will be high, 5-9 times higher than at public facilities, a big burden on current workers' salaries.

Another problem is the time for childcare when workers work overtime until 6-7pm, but public facilities only accept childcare until 5:30pm (Monday to Friday) and do not accept childcare on weekends and summer holidays.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tre-con-con-cong-nhan-khu-cong-nghiep-thieu-thon-moi-mat-cha-me-phai-gui-ve-que-20241121110759771.htm