VIETNAM'S SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT No.12, Winter 1997

POVERTY AND POOR WOMEN IN RURAL AREAS

NGUYEN PHUONG THAO
* Nguyen Phuong Thao is a research fellow at the Centre for Family and Woman Studies, National Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi.

The policy reform process (Doi Moi or Renovation) over the past 10 years in Vietnam has resulted in encouraging socio-economic achievements with an average economic growth of 8.2% (for the 1991-1995 period), and the gradual improvement of people's living conditions. Agricultural production has developed in a stable manner with an average annual increase of 5.8% (1991-1995) in total output value, and 1.2 million tonnes in food production. The food production growth rate, which is higher than the population growth rate, has helped increase the per capita food output from 324.9 kg in 1991 to 372.8 kg in 1995. Yet, by the mid-90s, 20% of families in the Vietnamese countryside where nearly 80% of the population resided had been categorized as poor, and within those poor families women are the ones who suffer most as revealed by a number of sociological surveys in recent years. In this paper, we would like to mention the role and position of rural poor women during the 1990s.

There have been different definitions of poverty given by various government bodies of Vietnam and international organizations when the question of poverty in Vietnam is studied. These definitions have covered a number of qualitative and quantitative criteria such as food rationing, assets, incomes, and concrete indicators (school dropout rate, serious malnutrition, or assets combined with income).

From the above criteria, it can be established that poor people in rural Vietnam are subject to most, or all of, the following:
- Food shortages for 3 to 6 months a year
- Shortage of land, or poor quality land
- Shortage of draught animals
- Shortage of work hands which number fewer than the dependents in the family (such families are often headed by women, and have many children or aged or sick people)
- Children or the mother in the family suffer from malnutrition
- Children in the family have low educational levels, have never gone to school or have dropped out at an early age

Large-scale surveys, such as the survey on people's living standards conducted in 1992-1993, have shown that 90% of the poor households in the country were in rural areas, mainly in the northern mountains, coastal areas and the Central Highlands. Among poor households, those headed by women made up one, two or three out of every ten.

Source: ADUKI company, "The Question of Poverty in Vietnam", Chinh Tri Quoc Gia (National Politics) Publisher, Hanoi, 1995, p.27.

2.1. Production conditions
- Land: Poor farmer households have on average less land per person than non-poor families. In the Red River delta, many poor families have recovered debts or lost land. Notably, households headed by women account for only one-third of those given land use rights, making them disadvantaged in production investment.
- The labour force: As compared to rich households, poor families do not lack work hands (averagely 3.6 against 3.3 for the rich). But the quality of their labour and the number of workdays have been quite different. For rich families, 63% of labourers had junior and senior high school education and their workdays reached 240-260 days/year; for poor households, 24.3% were illiterate, 53.6% had primary education only, and workdays were very small: 88 days/year.
- Other production means: On average, for 10 households there has been only one draught animal and 3 ploughs and harrows. Very few families have had simple equipment such as manual rice threshers, insecticide sprayers, and wheel-carts. For poor households, farming work has been largely done manually; hence low productivity and low income.

2.2. Living conditions
+ Housing and water: The residential house is always an important indicator reflecting living standards. 51.41% of poor households have had to live in houses built with simple materials, huts or makeshift dwellings, while 8.32% had to stay in other people's houses. The availability of toilets, water wells and bathrooms also reflects living standards. 22.61% of poor households use river, lake or stream water for cooking, and 42.07% for washing and bathing. More than one-third of poor households have no toilets or privies.
+ In Trung Son commune, Thanh Hoa province, single women-headed households accounted for a high proportion; the 1989 census showed many young widows with shortage of labour.

Source: Do Thuy Binh and Le Ngoc Lan, "Rural Poor Women in the Market Economy", Chinh Tri Quoc Gia Publisher, Hanoi, 1996; Women's Union figures.

3.1. Labour and income
Women make up more than 60% of the rural labour force, which tends to rise constantly and shows the increasingly significant role played by women in economic activities. Now that the household itself has become the primary production unit, women have on the one hand had to participate in productive labour so as to earn more income for the family, and on the other hand to continue performing their household duties. Therefore, women have to work harder and harder, as much as 12 hours a day, performing most of the farm work.

Particularly in poor families or those with women at the head, the work performed by women represented high percentages across most tasks: planting and sowing 61.1% (husband 5.6%); crop tending 59.4% (husband 2.1%); processing 50.8% (husband 5.2%); marketing 83.3% (husband 2.2%); purchase of supplies 74.0% (husband 8.3%); and husbandry 88.3% (husband 0.8%). In crop disease prevention and harvesting, the shares were more balanced between husband and wife (see Table 1).

Various surveys show that rural women earn less than men; female workers approximately 65,000 VND/month (as against 164,000 VND/month by male workers). The value of their workday is low, around 5,000–6,000 VND/day for farming work and 3,000 VND/day for non-agricultural work. Women's average wage is 20%–40% lower than men's.

(1) Survey of 400 peasant households in Bac Thai and Nam Ha provinces conducted by the Family and Woman Studies Centre in May–October 1996.

3.2. Access to production resources and technical knowhow
- Land: The granting of land use right certificates is often made to the names of male masters of families; hence women are not entitled to transfer or mortgage the land use right for loans. Poor households with women at the head have had no opportunity to be given more land through bidding or acquiring reserve land, while some others have had their land recovered due to failure to pay debts to the cooperatives. In some mountain communes, about 10% of poor households have had no land for farming because they moved from other localities and had to return land to local people.
- Capital sources: Poor women have had little opportunity to borrow money from banks to develop their production because they have no assets to mortgage. Meanwhile, State loans with preferential terms are limited as compared to the need of the poor. Only 10% of poor households have accessed the Bank of Agriculture. Many poor women could not borrow because they could not provide guarantees for their production.

3.3. Household chores burden
In addition to productive labour, women bear the overwhelming share of household chores. Surveys show that women perform 89.6% to 95.4% of such tasks as cleaning, cooking, laundry, and other domestic work. This double burden—productive work and unpaid housework—further increases the hardship faced by rural poor women.

Attention should be paid to the factor of gender in implementing policies and measures to eliminate hunger and alleviate poverty. Only by doing so can rural poor women be given opportunities and conditions to approach production resources, raise their production knowhow and abilities, and improve the living conditions of their families and themselves. Particular focus is needed on reducing poverty in deep-lying, distant and mountain areas and regions inhabited by minority people.

- ADUKI – "Poverty in Vietnam", Chinh Tri Quoc Gia Publisher, Hanoi, 1995.
- Do Thuy Binh and Le Ngoc Lan – "Rural Poor Women in the Market Economy", Chinh Tri Quoc Gia Publisher, Hanoi, 1996.
- Le Manh Hung and others – "Vietnam's socio-economic situation: Trend and Solution", Thong Ke Publisher, Hanoi, 1996.
- United Nations – "Hunger Elimination and Poverty Reduction in Vietnam", Hanoi, 1995.
- Nguyen Van Tiem – "Rich and Poor in the Countryside at Present", Nong Nghiep Publisher, Hanoi, 1994.
- Phan Thi Van Anh and Le Ngoc Hung – "Women: Gender and Development", Phu Nu Publisher, Hanoi, 1996.
- The State Planning Committee and General Statistical Office – "Vietnam Living Standards Survey 1992-1993", Hanoi, 1994.