In Myanmar, increasing numbers of Burmese children are leaving the countryside to head to expanding cities in search of work, following the opening up to the free market.
As Myanmar (known as Burma until 1989) set out on its tortuous path towards democracy and the free market, growing numbers of Burmese children have been moving from the countryside to cities in search of work. From 2012 onwards, a form of migration typical of developing countries, such as neighbouring China, became common in the country too.
Over the past four years, following the first free elections that brought the National League for Democracy — the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — to government alongside former military figures, greater rights have been guaranteed to the population, but the doors have also been flung wide open to new abuses and contradictions.
Thousands of minors, alone or with relatives, are abandoning their villages and schools to escape poverty and support their families. However, due to their vulnerability and lack of parental protection, they frequently become victims of trafficking and exploitation in tea shops, on construction sites, in hotels, restaurants and on the streets, where they are forced to sell small goods or beg from motorists and passers-by. It is often "brokers" — trafficking agents, commonly known as traffickers — who find work for the children, acting as intermediaries between families and employers, frequently deceiving them about the children's destinations.
Child labour has always been one of the main problems in Myanmar. The latest government survey, from 2015, estimates approximately 1.3 million child workers in Myanmar out of a total of 12 million, more than half of whom are said to be employed in hazardous tasks that may damage their physical, mental or moral development. Despite the high figure calculated by the Burmese government, various observers believe this number is not entirely reliable, as it is likely an underestimate. No reliable data exists, however, on the new exodus caused by the urbanisation that began disruptively after 50 years of military dictatorship (1962–2012). Testimonies from children's rights activists suggest, nonetheless, that the number of these "little exiles" certainly runs into several thousand.
"Since we launched the informal education project three years ago, we have worked with more than 5,000 young people," says Tim Aye Hardy, director of myME, Myanmar Mobile Education Project, speaking from the former capital Yangon. "Our programme currently involves more than 3,000 students, the majority of whom come from tea shops, roadside lodges, monastery schools and disadvantaged communities. Some are orphans."
Hardy, who took part in the student protests against the military junta in 1988 and the following year was forced to seek refuge in the United States, returned to Myanmar 15 years later with a simple but effective idea: to renovate old school buses, making them safe, comfortable and colourful in order to welcome children after work. As seen in the video filmed by myME, the buses reach the students and are transformed into mobile schools for two hours a day, as well as places to gather and receive psychological support. "We don't just teach writing or arithmetic," Tim explains, "but also how to develop critical thinking, healthy self-esteem and how to get along with others."
When asked how his country has changed since he left it, Tim replies: "The landscape of Yangon changes enormously from day to day. Since the beginning of the transition (towards democracy and capitalism, ed.) skyscrapers and large hotels have been going up, and new businesses are springing up everywhere. But all of this is happening in the absence of infrastructure, basic communication links and within a dysfunctional social and educational system." The mobile schools proved so successful in the larger cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Kyauk-Se that myME had to gather its students in the same tea shops after they close in the evening. We have seen a similar initiative in a very different and more advanced context — Japan — where poor children (not working children) are welcomed into cafés to receive a meal and support.
For some restaurant owners, as for a large part of the Burmese population, employing minors "is acceptable" as a means of sustenance for the poorest. This is confirmed to LifeGate, also from Yangon, by Selim Benaissa of the International Labour Organization (ILO, International labour organization). It is precisely this UN agency that has established the international definition of "child labour" as a practice to be combated: "Work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development." It can compromise children's education, prevent them from attending school, and manifest itself in the worst forms of slavery and forced labour. These include, also in Myanmar, the use of child soldiers, enforced prostitution and so-called "debt bondage" — the reduction of a person, including a minor, to a state of slavery in order to repay a debt.
Selim Benaissa adds that the exodus of children and adults from the countryside is directed above all towards the two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, their suburbs and industrial zones. The ILO official speaks of a dangerous gap: "The divide between the development of a few large cities and the majority of other urban centres is very evident. If the distribution of economic activity is not rebalanced, migration will obviously continue and the problems associated with child labour will persist."
In 2013, the Burmese government ratified C 182, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, and revised certain laws. In Myanmar, children under the age of 13 are not permitted to work in shops and factories, while adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15 should not be employed for more than 4 hours a day or at night. And yet, the former Burma stands out for a particularly grim record: excessive working hours, which range from an average of 52 hours a week to 60 or more. Tim Aye Hardy had explained clearly in an article in the Asia Times how the rising cost of living in cities and inflation were pushing employers to exploit child labour at extremely low cost, paying on average one dollar a day and 22 dollars a month.
On the other hand, Benaissa hopes for gradual improvement: "Since the reform process began in 2012, it has been possible to discuss issues such as child labour more openly. Various stakeholders are engaged in this campaign against child labour, including the government, the ILO itself, civil society, trade unions, and employers' organisations. However, coordination between government agencies and the various ministries needs to improve." In 2014 the government, supported by the UN, released 322 child soldiers and a further 146 in 2015. Nevertheless, the use of minors in active guerrilla groups in the country (various separatist groups in conflict with the state) and as servants, porters, cooks and dishwashers for the national army under its "self-sufficiency" policy remains widespread. Displaced children from the Kachin, Shan (around 100,000) and Rohingya (at least 120,000) minorities remain particularly at risk of trafficking.