Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

Participatory poverty monitoring in rural communities in Viet Nam
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Gender impacts of local casual jobs
Incomes are normally too low for people to save. Although the average wage for
both men and women has increased over the past five years (from 20,000 - 30,000
VND/day in 2007 to 100,000 VND/day in 2011) as work is infrequent and unstable
incomes often only cover daily expenditures and little is left for savings. An exception is
Thanh Xuong - Dien Bien and Thuan Hoa - Tra Vinh where many people work as porters
all year round, and incomes are higher than other areas.
Men tend to earn higher wages, but contribute less to the household. Heavy
labour commands a higher daily wage for men. However, as men often spend part of
their wages on cigarettes, coffee, and drinking with friends they tend to contribute less
to the household than women.
Local casual jobs often reinforce traditional gender roles. Basically, local casual
jobs often follow the model “men do heavy work, social work, while women do lighter
works, work in the family”. When men do local casual jobs, women stay at home to take
care of housework, children, and animal husbandry. “Husbands don’t do anything after
going back home from work, we have to cook for them.” (Women group of Ma Du village,
Phuoc Thanh - Ninh Thuan). In the case of women doing casual jobs, they still have to do
all housework before going to work or after going back home from work.
Risks of local casual jobs
Local casual jobs tend to be safe, but there are risks. These include exposure
to “social evils” (working as a porter in Thanh Xuong - Dien Bien), receiving lower than
agreed wages, (construction work in Ban Lien - Lao Cai), and accidents (timber transport
in Xy - Quang Tri) (Box 5.4).
BOX 5.4. Risks of local casual jobs
Ban Lien commune (Bac Ha - Lao Cai) received investments for various
infrastructures in 2008, so many people of the Tay ethnic group went to work for
such constructions. However, many of them were taken off their wages. In Doi 1
village, 7 men and 20 women work as masons at construction sites in the commune
being ripped off their wage, of up to 3 months/person, at 40,000 - 50,000 VND/
day. The reason was that the constructor left the construction due to high price and
losses, leaving behind machinery and construction materials. Because of this, many
households were in debt of up to hundreds of thousands of VND to local sellers
(debt rarely happened before, but now since there are additional incomes, people
borrow more with the hope that the additional income can compensate the debt).
Local sellers also suffered as some constructors didn’t pay their debt.
In Xy commune (Huong Hoa, Quang Tri), a job that brings a significant income
to households is timber transport in Laos, but this job is very heavy and risky. Van
Kieu ethnic minority men often have to carry 50 - 60 kilos in the forest for 3-4 days
consecutively. They often face risk of accidents during rains, (sometimes with broken
limbs, or pain), being bitten by insects, or high fever. Some people were arrested and
so had to pay a fine to get back home.
5.3. Labour export
Few people from the monitoring points have joined labour export programmes.
In 2011, there were labour export programmes run by the district Labour - Invalids and