To be a shoeshine boy in Hanoi: A different childhood narrative

Abstract

This article is based on interviews with 12 shoeshine boys in Hanoi, Vietnam, aged 11 to 16. All but one had finished primary school, and all were working to help support their families. Their childhood narrative is characterized by family obligations which motivated them to work hard and conscientiously, taking responsibility for their own day-to-day survival. It is a childhood narrative different from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) vision of a childhood free of labor and protected from abuse and risk, but it is also different from the image of children working in the streets as homeless and deviant, abusing drugs and stealing. This narrative underlines the need to recognize different childhood experiences when addressing the rights and health of working children. Copyright © 2004 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.