VietNamNet Bridge – A young man stands under the scorching sun at noon. He holds a cement bag in one hand and he hits the bag with a wooden stick with the other. His body is covered by a white layer of dust. For over 50 years, many people have earned their living by this dusty job. 

Locating along the banks of Rach Lao canal in Ward 15, District 8, HCM City, more than 70 families in Go Ma Lang village have been doing an unusual job – shaking dust from used bags – for over five decades.  

Nguyen Thi Tuyet, 40, who has done this job for 20 years, said that it appeared in Go Ma Long in early 1960 and it became popular in the early 1980s. At that time, all villagers did this job. People from the southwestern region also came to the village to work as hired workers. Nowadays, not many people do it because of the low pay.

At 12am, Giang Huy, 17, from the southern province of Long An, stood under the scorching sun to beat a cement bag with a 1m-long wood stick. After each hit, the cement dust spreads around him. His body was covered by a thick layer of white dust. But Huy didn’t use mask.

“It is very inconvenient to use mask because I’m always sweaty. I can’t breathe with a mask,” Huy explained.

He said he had applied to many companies in HCM City but they didn’t recruit him because he is only 17. Huy has become a hired worker here. He works from 7am until 5pm to earn 70,000 dong ($3.2) a day.

Huy said that it is good to do this job on sunny days.  

“I will do any job that is legal. My parents are very poor so I can’t afford to go to school. I quit studying when I was 12. I will do this job for several years to save money to open my own tea shop,” Huy said.

He said this job is not as hard as the job of masons or stevedores but workers have to live with dust and work in the sun.

There are two steps in cleaning used bags for sale: firstly shaking dust from bags and secondly washing them. Paper-made bags don’t need to go through the second step.

A woman named Hoa, 43, from Dong Thap province, earns only 30,000 to 60,000 dong a day ($1.5-3). She has done this job for over 20 years. She is a hired worker like Huy.

“I can save 10,000 dong a day to support my two children at home,” Hoa said.

Van Anh, 45, from Soc Trang, said he travels around the city to buy used cement bags from construction sites. He earns 200 dong of profit for a bag. He said each worker can clean over 1,000 bags a day.

“This job will not exist for much longer because local people complain that it pollutes the environment,” he said.

PV