Work, education and out-migration among children and youth in upland Asia: changing patterns of labour and ecological knowledge in an era of globalisation

Abstract

In the context of ecological and economic change, this paper identifies the impact of ongoing transformations in young people's labour contribution in four natural resource-dependent regions in India, Vietnam and China. Children's work is important to maximise household labour productivity, while also endowing them with the ecological knowledge necessary to sustain key productive livelihood activities. However, today, an increased emphasis on education and the out-migration of youth is reducing their labour contribution, particularly in the more economically developed case study communities in Northern Vietnam and China. While selective in its extent, these changes have increased the labour burden of older household members and women, while the economic opportunities young people aspire to following schooling or migration frequently prove elusive in a competitive liberalised economy. Another implication of young people diverting their labour and learning away from traditional natural resource-based livelihood activities is the loss of valuable ecological knowledge.

Keywords:

• Asia
• children
• ecological knowledge
• education
• migration
• work
• young people

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the European Commision for funding this HighARCS research and the local partners and their research teams, in particular: Luo Shiming, Liu Yiming, Cai Kunzheng and Cai Jian at South China Agricultural University, Guangdong, China; Rajeshwar Mishra, Dhananjay Ray, Subrata Majumdar and Chandan Ray at the Centre for the Development of Human Initiatives, Jalpaiguri, India; Nitai Kundu and Mausumi Pal at the Centre for Environmental Management and Participatory Design, West Bengal; Nguyen Thi Dieu Phuong, Nguyen Thi Hanh Tien, Do Van Thinh, Nguyen Hai Dang and Nguyen Thi Trang at the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 1, Hanoi; Soren Lund, International Development and Participatory Environmental Planning at the University of Roskilde, Denmark; Kevin Smith, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Stuart Bunting, the project coordinator at the Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex. The research leading to this paper has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7-El\rv-2007-1 under grant agreement no. 213015. This publication reflects the authors’ views, and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein. Efforts to develop a model of socially relevant education are not new, such as the peasant education in communist China (Baral 2011), Gandhian basic education influenced by the Sarvodya concept (see Priest 1960), and the campaigns of the radical Brazilian Educationist Paulo Freire. Recent efforts include the ‘New Democratic Education’ promoted by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) during Nepal's 10 year conflict (Baral 2011).

Notes

Integrated Action Plans for each fieldsite were developed in collaboration with stakeholders in the local government and communities based upon the data collected.

The authors of this paper were responsible for providing a comparative overview of the livelihoods section of the HighARCS project based on the four country reports (Mishra et al. 2011, Nguyen et al. 2011a, 2011b, Liu et al. 2011b). One of the authors was a full-time postdoctoral researcher on the project who participated with local research teams in 16 months of fieldwork (4 months at each site).

The wealth categories were based upon the subjective assessment of community members and therefore vary across sites. Nevertheless, the wealth ranking was a useful tool to ensure a broad range of participants were included in the survey (for more detail, see Sugden and Punch 2011).

Sites were selected by in-country teams according to a criteria agreed during a cross team meeting. Sites were expected to represent some level of dependence on aquatic resources and be situated in upland regions.

This was because local protocol in the region was that research activities should be coordinated through the village government.

Usually one member of the research team led the focus group discussion while another took notes. When a member of the international research team was present, a member of the local research team would translate.

In other words, land holdings cannot be expanded significantly to accumulate wealth, as land is allocated on long-term lease by the commune according to the needs of households. Intensifying production therefore is an important way to increase livelihood security.

We note that the Chinese Hukou system is a register and management system for population management in China which was traditionally used to restrict migration, particularly from rural areas. After 1978, along with economic development, increasing numbers were migrating to urban areas and the Hukou system needed to be reformed. Now migration is not restricted by the Hukou system but migrants need a temporary residence which limits their access to welfare support. The main impact of this is that they have to pay more for their children's education.

The preference for larger families was in the past common in the Vietnam and India sites, while in China this has never been the case due to the strict family planning laws, where even in remote rural areas you rarely find more than two children per household.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fraser Sugden

Current Address: International Water Management Institute, Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur, Nepal.