Young boys fetching water at sunset

Young boys fetching water at sunset from one of the soum centre’s tapstands,  Khalkhgol, Dornod Aimag.

Children usually fetch water for households in rural areas like Khalkhgol and some are paid by their neighbours for the service.  Some children spend the little money they earn on sweets and games, but some use it to support their families to buy basic necessities like flour and clothes.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Children outside their ger

Children outside their ger, Bayankhairhan Soum near Kherlen Aimag Centre, Dornod Aimag. 

More than half of Mongolian families still live in gers, the traditional felt tents that can be dismantled to fit on a cart or a truck when the family moves. Living so far from the electricity of the soum centre, this ger has a wind turbine to power the lighting and stereo inside. 

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Rural ger

Rural ger, Bayankhairhan Soum near Kherlen Aimag Centre, Dornod Aimag. 

Rural households often live in family groups but far from the soum centre – this ger was 30 minutes drive from the centre. This is the family’s spring shelter. Herding households move between their shelters to be near fresh pasture, water or, in winter, a more protected climate. To attend kindergarten, the young daughter of the family stays with her grandmother in the soum centre during the week and returns home to this ger at weekends.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Soum centre: Khalkhgol

Khalkhgol soum centre in Dornod Aimag near the border with China in Eastern Mongolia.

Mongolia has 331 soum centres (administrative/service centres) and population sizes vary from 2000 to 40,000 people. Maintaining these centres, with their high demands for fuel for heating, their need for basic water, health, education and electricity services and with such vast distances between them, is extremely challenging. Khalkhgol, like many other centres, has seen rapid decline in economic activity, building maintenance and service provision since 1990.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Research in action!

Bold, a researcher with the Mongolia CHIP Team, taking a household questionnaire

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

School children in their classroom

School children in their classroom in Khalkhgol soum. They all enjoy studying with friends, the school competitions and sliding down the big hill nearby in winter. When asked what they would change about their school they suggested better chairs and desks, some more paint for the walls, books for the library, computers (“so we can get information”) and more professional teachers for certain classes.  Rural schools like this one - it is far from the provincial centre and 3 days drive from the capital - find it very difficult to attract teachers. 

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Girls playing in the soum centre square

Girls playing in the soum centre square on a Sunday afternoon in Khalkhgol soum.

This girl (far left in the photograph) is 11 years old, but is only in the first grade at school because her family could not afford to send her when she was younger. She explains, “I wanted to go to school before but I couldn’t – I didn’t have materials.” 

Now she attends first grade classes and after school, like most other children, helps with household tasks:

“I earn 100 Togrogs carrying water for others and I give the money I get to my younger brother and sisters to buy sweets.”

“I collect dung once a day in the afternoon with my older sister – we collect it to burn at home to keep the ger warm”.

Animal dung is a very popular and readily available fuel in rural areas. Government resources for energy provision are seriously stretched. Access to electricity is often limited to those who can afford the connection. This girl’s household, for instance, does not have electricity:

“I use a candle to do my homework in the evenings – I only have time to do homework in the evenings unless we get back early from school.  If I could improve our soum I would ask for electricity then I would be able to do my homework better.”

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Kindergarten lunch

Young children enjoying lunch of flour noodles in milk at their Khalkhgol soum kindergarten.

When government budgets for education had to be cut after transition, many pre-schools were closed. Although the situation has improved, not all children can attend kindergarten. Places are very limited and some parents cannot afford the food and other costs they are required to pay. Save the Children UK supports kindergartens across the country, including this one in Khalkhgol, and works with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Education and Culture to develop teacher training and the curriculum.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Mother and child in their small apartment

Mother and child in their small apartment in the centre of Khalkhgol soum centre.

Since the early 1990s, many families have moved away from soum centres like Khalkhgol. Those left behind are often those who do not have the resources or the connections to move. Since the government can no longer afford to provide heating to the apartment blocks in the soum centres, families have moved to the upper floor in each block and put a pipe out through the roof for the wood/dung-burning heating system.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Mongolia CHIP Team

Some of the CHIP Mongolia Team team on the steppe grasslands of Dornod Aimag.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Horses are vital to rural life

Horses are very important in Mongolian culture and play a vital role in rural life - there are over 100 words for 'horse' in Mongolian. These horses are the family’s means of communication with the soum centre.

by Jenni Marshall/CHIP

Mother with baby in their home

This young mother lives in the house shown in this photograph with her 6-month-old daughter (pictured), her 9-year-old son and her partner. The house, however, does not belong to them - their relatives have given it to them temporarily. Like many other young families in Kyrgyzstan, they find the cost of buying or building a house of their own too high.

There are two rooms in this house at present - the family lives in one of them, while using the other for storage. It is often cold in the living room as they can only afford to heat it with their metal stove. Because of this, the baby catches cold easily.

According to CHIP research, cutting down on heating in winter is a common money-saving strategy among poorer families in Kyrgyzstan. As a consequence, though, a high percentage of children catch cold or 'flu in winter - and, for older children, this means they are more likely to miss school in winter.   

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Ready to bake

Families in rural areas usually bake their own bread, like the woman pictured here. This young woman is about to put the naan (bread) into the tandyr (oven) and will normally make a big enough batch to last her family a couple of days. Naan is baked on straw, which is collected during the autumn months.

Since independence, people in Kyrgyzstan have had to turn to all sorts of survival strategies to get by - to make ends meet, many rural and urban women bake bread to sell to passers-by and in markets. It is a particularly common way to earn money among women living in villages in southern Kyrgyzstan, who will go to the nearest city to sell their naan. With the money they earn, these women will usually buy food provisions for their families, such as oil, macaroni and sugar.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Making naan

A woman makes naan (bread) for her family. Whereas people might have bought bread before independence, they are now more likely to make their own in order to save some money.  

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

'The rich shop while the poor beg'

This picture was drawn by a child in Kyrgyzstan to illustrate the difference between the rich and the poor.  It shows the poor, in the bottom half of the drawing, being asked 'Are you begging again?'  The rich, in the top half, are visiting the grocery store in their car.

When asked what three things they would do with 10 000 soms, this child said they would buy a computer, a TV, and a CD player.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Making bricks

A family makes bricks from clay. The bricks would typically be used to build a house or shed, and clay is the cheapest construction material available. 

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

His daily responsibility

A young boy feeds the family cow, a task that he does daily. He lives in a village called Gulbar in southern Kyrgyzstan (near Osh city), where a cow can indicate a family's wealth.

There is no pasture land in this village. Most families send their cows to pasture further away during the summer. Some families, like this little boy's, who decide to keep their cows in the village have to find fodder for them from wherever they can. This boy works from morning till evening every day in order to feed his cow.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Kindergarten lunch

The picture was taken during the lunchtime in one of the kindergartens in Kokyangak. Overall, there are 7 kindergartens in the city. At present, 215 children attend kindergarten in the city compared with 700 some 20 years ago. This is largely because kindergartens now charge fees of 35-50 soms per child (around US $0.90). Even though the city council subsidises places for children from large families (with over four children), many can not afford to attend. These days kindergartens are self-financing and staff are responsible for repairs and creating toys and educational materials.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Cleaning wheat

Two young boys clean wheat.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Makeshift paddling pool

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Playing nurse

A little girl watches over her younger sibling. Many children in Kyrgyzstan are expected to help their families out in different ways. Girls, in particular, often look after their younger siblings or children of other relatives.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Corn and potato fields

Corn and potato fields in Gulbar, Kyrgyzstan.

After the privatisation of state & collective farms in the mid-1990s, people started growing crops like corn and potatoes, both to feed themselves and to sell. The first few years were very hard as people did not have experience of growing crops. Now it is a little easier, but many people in southern Kyrgyzstan, in particular, have very small pieces of land - or cannot afford to irrigate or fertilise their land, or even to buy good quality seed.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

At work in the field

An adolescent boy works in the field in his village.

The Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team found that children tend to start working around the age of 6 years. They start off with 'easy' jobs such as looking after livestock, gardening, cleaning the house, cooking, fetching water, gathering nuts and berries from the forest and so on. From the age of 11 years onwards, children are generally tasked with more difficult jobs such as wage labour in someone else's fields, taking care of someone else's livestock, coal mining, and so on.

CHIP research clearly shows that many children work long hours, often literally from sunrise to sunset. Here are some children's comments about their work:

"I get up at six in the morning and work until five." - A 16-year-old boy

"I earn 50 Soms and sometimes up to 100 Soms per day when I work with the wheelbarrow. I give the money to my mother - she repays our debts, buys oil and bread." - A 16-year-old boy

"I work during the summer too. I help to weed the land, when onions are grown in the field. We were hired to work on somebody's land. They paid us about 20 Soms per day for our work. I spent the money I earned on clothes - I bought jeans, a sweater and shirts. I was supposed to get paid 400 Soms, but the boss only gave me 150 Soms, promising to pay the money later. The man did not pay my brother either." - A 12-year-old boy

"When I do not go to school, I work in the market. I sell pasties. I can earn up to 40 Soms a day, but usually I get 10-15 Soms a day." - A 14-year-old girl  

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Child coal miner

This is Bakyt, an 11-year-old boy who works in a coal mine and, together with his two older brothers, is one of his family's main breadwinners.

Read more about Bakyt's story by clicking on the case study link below.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

This photo is from the Bakyt: Missing out on school and play because of poverty Case Study

Toddler playing in the street

This toddler plays unattended in dirty water streaming through his neighbourhood - the street is also strewn with rubbish. Playing in such unhygienic conditions means that this little boy is more susceptible to illness.

The CHIP team found that children playing like this in unsanitary neighbourhood streets is common, and that parents are often too busy getting on with their work to be able to keep an eye on their children at all times.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Three priorities: a cow, some land, and a house

This picture was drawn by a child in Kyrgyzstan.  It shows their views on the differences between the rich and poor.  The rich man at the top of the picture talks on his mobile phone near his car.  He says 'fine, great, everything's cool.' 

Although the picture shows cars, new clothes, and mobile phones as objects a poor man dreams about, this child said they would buy a cow, some land, and a house if they were given 10 000 soms.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Caring for the family

This picture was drawn by a child in Kyrgyzstan to illustrate the difference between the rich and the poor. 

The rich, at the top of the picture, are playing football, resting in the house, and excluding the poor. Their house has a separate kitchen and satellite television. The poor are working on the land and drinking tea and eating bread. 

When asked what they would do with 10 000 soms, this child said they would buy food (flour, carrots, and rice), a coat for their mother, clothes for their brothers and father, and something for themselves with the remainder.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

The desire for a good education

This picture was drawn by a child in Kyrgyzstan.  The caption for the top half of the page describes the poor man and his house; he is uneducated and jobless and tries to feed his family or let one of his children study.  There is nothing inside his house and it is not painted.  The bottom images describe the rich mans life. He works in an office with a computer and lives in a house with a garage on an asphalted road and owns a barn with livestock inside. 

This child's wishes are to learn English and Spanish, to study at university, and to send their sister to study abroad.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

A child's view of wealth and poverty, and concerns about family debt

This picture was drawn by a child in Kyrgyzstan. It shows their views of the rich and poor. The rich live in an expensive house with a swimming pool and a car, while the poor are arguing (the woman in the picture is saying 'No more vodka').

When asked what three things they would do with 10 000 soms, this child said they would lend money for interest, share with other poor people and repay their family debts.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

A good education and a chance to travel

These are some of the wishes of the child in Kyrgyzstan who drew this picture to illustrate the differences between the rich and the poor. The top image shows the house of a senator, the rich, while the bottom image shows the poor working in the field. 

If given 10 000 soms, this child said they would be as rich as President Aleoyev, they would live in Bishkek, and would like to go to university.  One of this child's wishes is to travel, especially in the USA.

by Kyrgyzstan CHIP Team

Girls grazing cattle

Grazing cattle is a common household responsibility for both boys and girls in rural Rajasthan. Most children grow up sharing in household work, which includes tasks like looking after siblings, agricultural work and fetching water.

The girls pictured here are missing school in order to help with household work. In poorer households, it is often the case that children either miss classes or drop out of school completely because they to need help with family work or go out and find a job. In some cases, though, children do manage to combine work with school, like Nanuram the schoolboy ice-cream seller whose story you can read on the Case Studies page.

by India CHIP Team

Schoolboy ice-cream seller

This 12-year-old boy sells ice cream to help make ends meet at home...read more about Nanuram's life by clicking on the case study link below.

by India CHIP Team

This photo is from the Nanuram: the schoolboy ice-cream seller Case Study

Storing fodder

These children are carrying out one of their household responsibilities - storing fodder for livestock in a nearby tree, a common storage method.

by India CHIP Team

Fetching water

A young girl fetches water for household use - a job that many children in rural Rajasthan are tasked with. Children commonly devote a large chunk of their day to work such as fetching water, other domestic jobs, agricultural work and looking after livestock. CHIP research in two districts in Rajasthan found that, in the 6-11 age group, girls spend more time than boys in domestic work - over 3 hours a day for the majority of young girls.

This girl lives in the predominantly tribal district of Banswara in southern Rajasthan, where agriculture and casual labour form the basis of most people's livelihood.  

by India CHIP Team

Looking after baby

A young school girl looks after her younger sibling. Childminding, like fetching water, is a domestic job that typically falls to children, particularly while older family members are engaged in income-generating activities.

by India CHIP Team

In the school courtyard

These children sit grouped in their classes in the courtyard of their primary school in Morda village in Tonk district, in north-east Rajasthan. Although there is a school building, it is not in good condition and classes tend to be held outdoors, with a teacher circulating between the different groups of children, meaning that the children are not necessarily engaged in a school lesson when they are supposed to be. 

There are three teachers at this village school, but parents complain that they do not turn up regularly and that the quality of education is not as it should be. This particular school is part of the Shiksha Karmi programme, which trains local residents as teachers and places an emphasis on innovative teaching methods. However, the CHIP team found that the teachers here are not actually delivering activity-based lessons - central to the Shiksha Karmi programme - instead, lessons are based on traditional rote-learning methods. Community members have complained that nothing much happens at this school, and that their children are not benefitting as they should.

In fact, many parents have withdrawn their children from this school and and are sending them to private schools and state schools in neighbouring villages instead. As one parent puts it: "No learning takes place in the government school - even after studying up to Standard 5, they [the children] know nothing."

by India CHIP Team

School lunch

Free school lunch can boost children's education and wellbeing.

These children are collecting their school lunch - a food known as ghoogry, which is a kind of gruel made of boiled wheat, oil and jaggery (coarse brown sugar), with peanuts added in some cases. This meal is distributed free to school children all over the State of Rajasthan at lunchtime and or during their mid-morning break, as part of the Government's Midday Meal Scheme. 

The idea behind the Midday Meal Scheme is that it provides an incentive for children to attend school, and for parents to send them to school - the scheme has boosted school enrolment and attendance, as well as contributing to children's nutritional intake. The midday meal is meant to provide each school child with at least 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein.

However, CHIP research strongly indicates that there are still significant gaps in the actual delivery of the midday meal - for instance, in some village schools official records state that the midday meal is distributed daily to children, while in fact it might only be made and distributed a few days a month when the teacher actually turns up (teacher attendance also being a problem in many schools).

Children at this particular school in Morda village are relatively fortunate in that the ghoogry is made and distributed regularly, and an assistant has been employed by the school to prepare it. Even children who are absent from school on a given day will come and collect their midday meal  - so, even though they might miss classes, at least they receive a nutritious meal. The midday meal prepared at this particular school is also made available to young children who are enrolled at the local Anganwari centre (early childhood development centre).

by India CHIP Team

Hand embroidery: a family income-generating activity

A mother and her two daughters embroider a traditional stole (chunari) by hand - it usually takes them two days to finish one. When they have completed 8-10 of these, the girls' brother takes the stoles to the market to sell them - their mother keeps the money earned from this activity to spend on household needs.

One of the girls, Kamlesh, dropped out of school after Standard 5.  She wanted to continue at school, but there is no upper primary school in her own village and her parents did not want her to travel to a school outside the village - Kamlesh belongs to a Rajput family, and traditionally there are restrictions on the mobility of Rajput girls and women.

Kamlesh’s father is a farmer and owns 12 bighas¹ (equivalent to 3 hectares) of land. He owns a mare, one buffalo and a pair of oxen. The land does not yield much, though, as there are no sources of irrigation. During a recent period of severe drought, he took out a loan of 15,000 Rupees for household consumption which has yet to be repaid. Kamlesh’s mother decided to work and started embroidering stoles to supplement the family income, an activity which Kamlesh and her sister also joined in.

Kamlesh feels that girls should be educated up to Standard 8 and feels disappointed that she could not study further. She also feels that Rajput women have too many restrictions imposed on them and cites this as the main reason for her withdrawal from school.  However, her younger sister is still attending a private school near the village.  

by India CHIP Team

Children help at harvest time

In Banswara district, maize is one of the most commonly grown crops. Here we see children helping adults sift through the maize harvest. Children tend to contribute to household work on a regular basis throughout the year and some combine this work with attending school - however, at harvest time, school attendance drops or becomes irregular as there is more work for families to do, and children are called upon to spend more of their time helping out.  

by India CHIP Team

Quilting: a group activity

An adolescent girl (foreground) joins female members of her extended family in making a quilt for household use - another example of the kind of domestic work that children engage in.

by India CHIP Team

Visiting the Anganwari centre

A mother and baby visit their local Anganwari centre, where they talk to a trained Early Childhood Development worker.

Anganwari centres are centres focusing on Early Childhood Development, which provide health and nutrition advice, immunisation, and nutritional supplements to children aged 0-5 and to pregnant and lactating women.

by India CHIP Team

Essential nutrients

A little boy holds out his shirt to receive a valuable dose of nutritional supplements at a local Anganwari (Early Childhood Development) centre.

Nutritional supplements from government-supported Anganwari centres such as these can help to significantly boost young children's wellbeing. However, CHIP research found that there were high levels of malnutrition and low levels of immunisation amongst children in the communities that the team surveyed. They found that not all mothers and children benefit equally - children of marginalised members of the community, in particular, do not visit these centres and therefore do not receive the same health boost that their peers do. Although in many areas, Anganwari centres have made important contributions to child and maternal wellbeing, there are still significant gaps in the system that need to be addressed and the efficiency of these centres can vary greatly from village to village.

by India CHIP Team

Typical rural homes

These houses pictured here are typical of those found in Radhavallapura village in Rajasthan's Tonk district. You can see here a mixture of semi pucca houses and pucca houses. Semi pucca houses are made of cement or concrete and have thatched roofs, while pucca houses are made entirely of cement or concrete.

by India CHIP Team

Young Chinese children

by China CHIP Team

Boy at home

by China CHIP Team

Young children doing homework

by China CHIP Team

Little girl eating fruit

by China CHIP Team

In the shadow of skyscrapers

by China CHIP Team

Urban market place

by China CHIP Team

Woman working at home

by China CHIP Team

Poor urban housing

by China CHIP Team

Playing in the street

by China CHIP Team

Boys at play in their neigbourhood

by China CHIP Team