TERRAVIVA - THE INDEPENDENT FAMILY OF PUBLICATIONS FROM INTER PRESS SERVICE. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/default.asp Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. en-US http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=627 Sutthida Malikaew Improvements in occupational safety and health in this northern Thai province, including among wood carvers, appears to be cutting into the work-related disease rate here, but a health official said that a growing suicide rate appears to be an emerging problem. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=628 Sutthida Malikaew Legal weapons, evictions and cleanliness drives are the most common responses to street vending, but officials of this northern Thai city say they found compassion much more effective in handling what is usually seen as a law and order issue. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=622 Johanna Son Recognition of the informal economy -- its social and economic value as well as its rights aspect -- is picking up in countries like Cambodia, Mongolia and Thailand, but the pace needs to be much faster, experts say. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=621 Alejandro Kirk In Bangkok, street vendors have been around since 200 years ago, Narumol Nirathron of Thammasat University said. Laws and regulations relating to them started in 1941, added Vichai Rupkamdee of the National Institute of Development Administration. And the vast majority of those vendors -- 82 percent -- consider their earnings adequate, according to university surveys. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=620 Lin Zixin "There are no railings for these platforms above the canal! Won’t the children fall into the water?" This was one of the first remarks that Dr Leng Tong, a Cambodian government official, made on the May 9 field trip to the community-managed Pai Sing To market when he saw the houses built above the canal. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=619 Alejandro Kirk While the streets of Phnom Penh are packed with women selling food and other goods, Cambodian authorities still consider street vendors "hindrances to urban development" and seek their relocation back to rural areas, Kyoko Kusakabe, of the Asian Institute of Techonology, told participants of ILO's Seminar on Informal Economy: Labour Protection and Street Vending. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=623 Soma Basu For nearly two decades, 45-year-old Tamil Selvi has been rendering a silent service from the dusty corner of a street in a residential area of this small town in Tamil Nadu state in south India. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=624 Alejandro Kirk To Sathapom Charupa, director of labour protection at the Thai Ministry of Labour, it is precisely because they are informal that "you can't always use the law" to protect workers subject to exploitation and abuse in the so-called informal sector. Not even India, he said at the second leg of the ILO Seminar, was able to draft a law. http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=625 Alejandro Kirk Surveys show that many street vendors in Bangkok have reached that elusive category of the "middle class". They told Thammasat University researchers that they are almost happy, with a good 84 percent of mobile vendors – hawkers - satisfied with their income and 83 percent willing to encourage friends to enter the business. But, and it is a big but, this optimism drops sharply when it comes to their own children: only 20 percent of parents would encourage them to follow in their footsteps http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/bangkok/viewstory.asp?idnews=626 Lin Zixin David Tajgman, ILO consultant: Realism, I was struck by the realism of the discussion and this is a positive thing. If it was not realistic, it would be like talking in terms of a fantasy situation and that was not what happened. The discussion of the issues, for example the labour laws, were very realistic.