Untitled - Oxfam Blogs

Impacts of Price Hikes
on the Life and Livelihoods
of the Urban Poor
economic regions’ on such islands as Ngc Vng, Kôtô and Tiên Yên and (ii) it is an isolated location,
near to the dyke and cemetery. Living conditions are very poor.
Infrastructure facilities in the village are worse than in rural areas. Only the clean water system reaches
all the households. The internal pathways are dirt and get muddy except for a 100 meter asphalt
portion connecting the village and the main road. A paradox is that despite being located beside a 220
kV transmission station, the households still have to pay a very high cost for electricity. “The electricity
grids are obsolete. They are hanging close to the ground. The poles built in 1997 have turned rusty.
We have to contribute our own money to build smaller poles. There is no network of public lights in
place. One single electricity meter is shared by 10-15 households altogether. Because of the small size
of the grids and high loss rate we have to pay as much as 1,800 VND/unit. In peak seasons, the voltage
is very low. It can get so low that sometimes we can not even use the fans“. In a group discussion with
the children, they expressed their dream to “have an electric light to study at night”.
The economic well-being of households in the village remains at a low level. On their return from the
new economic regions in 1982-1985, each was allocated 1-2 saos of paddy land. At that time their
income mainly came from paddy farming and brick production. In 2001, the Government recalled the
land to build electricity transmission stations and industrial estates. The compensation funds provided
to them by the Government were not sufficient for them to shift to a new profession. Without education
and any trained skills they have taken on simple jobs such as cyclo drivers, construction workers and
street vendors. Each can earn 30,000-70,000 VND per day on average. However, income is very
unstable: “We may earn some today and nothing tomorrow, just like a gambling game”. Nearly 70
percent of the households in the village depend on cyclos for transport. In certain households, both the
husband and the wife drive cyclos, mainly to transport construction materials.
However their life has become even more difficult since the daytime ban on cyclos operating in the city.
The villagers have had to work harder, from dawn to dusk. Many of them now have to go catching
crabs and snails along the river in order to gain extra income or supplement food for the family.
As they already are struggling to survive economically they are not able to pay due attention to their
children’s education. Discussions with core groups in the village show that “there are various types of
fees apart from tuition fees that the poor parents can not afford to pay. Many children in the village
have had to drop out of school for this reason.”
The migrant poor (who do not have permanently registered residence and are classified as KT3, KT4 23 )
are divided into two groups: migrant workers working in factories and enterprises (often young unmarried
men with at least a grade 9 education) and migrants doing informal jobs such as working as street vendors,
waste collection, simple construction work and working as shop assistants (typically having low education,
married with children who are left in the country side). Migrants are concentrated in newly urbanized
suburban wards. For example, migrants account for 50 percent of the population in wards 6 and 17 of Gò
Vp District, HCMC and nearly 30 percent in Lãm Hà, Kin An District, Hai Phong City. In ward 17, Gò Vp
District in the first quarter of 2008, there were 1,800 arrivals and 2,000 departures (according to
temporary residence records of the ward authorities).
In fact the migrants are not considered “poor” according to the existing poverty line. An average migrant
worker can earn a minimum of 800,000 VND/month. Others doing informal jobs can also earn at least
40,000-50,000 VND/day (which is still higher that the current poverty line of 260,000 VND/month/person
for urban areas and 500,000 VND/month/person for HCMC exclusively). However the net income (exclusive
of lodging, electricity and water expenses and remittances) is very small, only between 400,000-600,000
VND/month/person and is to cover food and other essential personal expenditures. In real terms, migrants
fall into the “poor” and “near-poor” groups. Yet they are not included in official poverty surveys as they are
not permanently registered, and do not have permanent rental contacts.
Migrant workers have observed a 20 percent increase in the minimum nominal wage level since January
2008 under a Government policy. However, the real revision was less than 20 percent (Table 4.1).
23 KT1, KT2, KT3 and KT4 are the administrative classifications of residence status. KT1: permanently registered residence and actual residence in the same district;
KT2: permanently registered residence and actual residence in different districts; KT3: temporary residence for 6-12 months; KT4: temporary residence for under
3 months or unregistered.
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