{"id":8312,"date":"2025-11-16T22:23:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T15:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/?p=8312"},"modified":"2025-11-16T22:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T15:53:29","slug":"the-lives-of-people-in-myanmar-who-are-paying-conscription-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/2025\/11\/the-lives-of-people-in-myanmar-who-are-paying-conscription-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lives of People in Myanmar Who Are Paying \u201cConscription Fees\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Myanmar Spring Chronicle \u2013 November 14 Overview<\/strong>
(MoeMaKa, November 15, 2025)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Lives of People in Myanmar Who Are Paying \u201cConscription Fees\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly eight decades of civil war in Myanmar, people have faced forced recruitment, rounding up of young men below conscription age, and\u2014in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups\u2014households with youths being compelled to send one (or more) person per family to serve. These long-running problems have persisted for years.<\/p>\n

Before the 2021 coup, the national military did not generally require a \u201cone person per household must serve\u201d policy. Instead, its recruitment offices used various methods: small cash incentives; commuting the sentences of those convicted of lesser, non-serious crimes if they joined; and requiring soldiers who wanted to resign to find a set number of replacements before being allowed out. These practices were seen over past decades.<\/p>\n

In territories controlled by ethnic armed organizations, villages under their administration have also long been required to provide at least one person per household for service when youths come of age.<\/p>\n

By early 2024, these practices had spread even into major cities. In February 2024 the junta activated the Compulsory Military Service Law<\/strong>, requiring men aged 18\u201335<\/strong> (and skilled professionals up to 45<\/strong>) to serve two years<\/strong>. Officially, the regime announced a weekly nationwide intake that would total 5,000 recruits per month<\/strong>, though various reports suggest the real number is higher.<\/p>\n

Enforcing the draft in non-EAO townships and villages has had a huge impact, which continues to be felt in many places\u2014economically, educationally, through labor shortages, and via abuses of authority. Today\u2019s focus is on the village-level \u201cconscription fees\u201d<\/strong> and cash-for-replacement<\/strong> payments being collected since the law took effect.<\/p>\n

At first, families who had not yet \u201cdrawn the lot\u201d or been selected were not overly alarmed. But within a few months, that changed: in towns and villages, people were constantly pressured and money was extracted in the tens of lakhs of kyat<\/strong> to avoid being picked.<\/p>\n

The amount demanded for finding or paying a substitute varies by location. In some places it used to be 200,000\u2013300,000 kyat<\/strong>, but now the minimum is commonly 600,000\u2013700,000 kyat<\/strong>\u2014covering both the village\u2019s levy to secure a replacement and the payment given to the person who agrees to serve in someone\u2019s place. If someone is detained during travel or daily work, far higher bribes\u2014into the millions of kyat<\/strong>\u2014are reportedly demanded to secure release.<\/p>\n

Many people assume that being drafted carries a 70%\u201390% chance of death<\/strong>. With daily fighting nationwide, even veterans with decades of experience are being killed or captured; for new conscripts sent to the front after only 2\u20133 months<\/strong> of training to face ethnic armies and PDFs, the risk of death or capture is extremely high.<\/p>\n

Now, local administrators in junta-held towns, wards, and villages are collecting monthly \u201cconscription fees\u201d<\/strong>: at least 5,000 kyat per household<\/strong> in some areas and up to 35,000 kyat<\/strong> in others. Countless families across Myanmar struggle each month to scrape together 10,000\u201320,000 kyat<\/strong> amid war-time roadblocks, soaring prices, and vanishing jobs.<\/p>\n

Without regard for households\u2019 shrinking incomes, these ward\/village levies\u2014in the tens of thousands of kyat per home<\/strong>\u2014add up to huge sums at the community level. A recent Facebook group post from one township noted that the monthly fee had doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 kyat<\/strong>. Comments poured in saying their areas charge 20,000 to 35,000 kyat<\/strong>, with some suggesting the original post\u2019s amount was \u201cstill low.\u201d Beyond the monthly fee, families with draft-age males are in some places charged an additional 100,000\u2013200,000 kyat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

These monthly collections are not stipulated in the conscription law or regulations<\/strong>; they are imposed by ward\/village authorities on their own initiative. The whole spectrum\u2014collecting \u201cconscription fees,\u201d paying for substitutes, detaining people and extorting hundreds of thousands to millions of kyat<\/strong>\u2014is unlawful, yet it happens daily. Nationwide, the total sums are enormous\u2014hundreds of billions of kyat<\/strong>\u2014a burden squeezed from ordinary people, who must carve the \u201cconscription fee\u201d out of their meager household budgets just to keep the authorities at bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Myanmar Spring Chronicle \u2013 November 14 Overview(MoeMaKa, November 15, 2025) The Lives of People in Myanmar Who Are Paying \u201cConscription Fees\u201d For nearly eight decades of civil war in Myanmar, people have faced forced recruitment, rounding up of young men…<\/p>\n

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