Child labour in Myanmar

Myanmar can't stamp out child labour overnight, but with assistance, it can make strong inroads toward its eradication

In 2010, the military leadership that had been ruling Myanmar for decades unexpectedly signalled that it was rather more open to the idea of ‘democracy’ than previously anticipated. Since then, the world has been scrambling to determine how to best engage with the mercurial Burmese generals.

Over the last four years, changes have come at a very brisk pace: Myanmar’s most famous citizen — Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — was released from nearly a decade of house arrest, along with scores of other political prisoners. She now sits in the Parliament, and heads a major opposition party. Several ethnic minority groups that had been engaging in long-running armed rebellions against the military have agreed to a ceasefire. Many Western countries have lifted sanctions that have been in place for over 25 years. For the first time since independence more than 60 years ago, Myanmar’s press is enjoying unprecedented (although not unlimited) freedom of expression, and foreign firms are lining up to research investment opportunities. On the surface, the overall picture is very promising.

The difficulty, as ever, comes if you scratch beneath the surface. Last week, Telenor — a telecommunications firm that is majority-owned by the Norwegian government — announced that it had learnt that some of its in-county partners were using child labour. Telenor has been granted one of two licences to build a modern cellular network in Myanmar. This is desperately needed in a nation where it is estimated that only 10 per cent of citizens have mobile phones. More than just allowing people to communicate more easily, such infrastructure can also be used as the backbone of a mobile banking system, something that has become essential in many developing countries where most of the population don’t have bank accounts.

Despite the breathtaking pace of its recent advances, Myanmar remains a poor nation, with a per capita GDP of less than $900 a year. Of its approximately 60 million citizens, less than one per cent are judged to be ‘middle class’. In countries where poverty is so prevalent, child labour is often not only accepted but encouraged.

Tolerance of child labour helps create and perpetuate an environment that is ripe for abuse and exploitation; since 2011, the ILO has received 155 formal complaints against Myanmar regarding under-age recruitment, particularly the trafficking of children for forced labour. But even beyond this extreme example, child labour directly undermines a country’s path to prosperity: if children are working, they are almost certainly not in school. Even more than foreign direct investment, Myanmar needs an educated population that can help it implement all the reforms it is enthusiastically undertaking.

Telenor is a corporation headquartered in a rich, Western nation that enjoys very high domestic labour standards and has an enviable record regarding corporate social responsibility. It should be commended for undertaking ‘spot checks’ of its operations, in accordance with recommended best practices. But not all of Myanmar’s external stakeholders will be so conscientious; China accounts for 40 per cent of foreign investment in the country, and it would be idealistic in the extreme to hope that Chinese firms will be as scrupulous about the issue of child labour.

Myanmar cannot stamp out child labour overnight, but with dedicated assistance, it can make some strong inroads toward its eradication. There is much room to grow on this issue—here’s hoping that the government decides it is something worth investing in.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.