YANGON—
A boy's small hands expertly operate a circular saw in a workshop just outside the central Myanmar city of Mandalay. Although only 13 years old, he has been doing this work for about a year, so says he feels safe working with the machine and its fast-spinning blade.
He can earn about $3 per day with this work, more than the country’s recently introduced minimum wage, and says he is learning skills that will enable him to earn more in the future.
He gives all his earnings to his mother, a poor farmer. His father has left the family and become a Buddhist monk, the boy says.
“My mother asked me to go to work,” he says. “At my home there is no food to eat. That’s why I come to work. The boss is good to me and feeds me.”
This boy's predicament may be shocking, but it is all too common in Myanmar. The country has since 2011 been undergoing a political transformation and is seeing high headline rates of economic growth. But when a new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy takes power next year, it will inherit a broken education system and dire poverty in many rural areas that are fueling rampant child labor. (Courtesy of VOA)
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