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While public works projects are generally undertaken with the goal of improving the lives of the population, news of such projects in Burma is greeted by a wave of fear and anxiety by local villagers. Such was the case of the Ye-Tavoy Railway. The construction of the railway began in 1990 and has needed continual and major repairs, particularly after the rainy season.

While in most countries such a project provides meaningful employment for the local communities, this is not the case in Burma. Self-sufficient farmers were told that they had to "donate" their labor towards the construction of a project, and that otherwise they would have to pay an expensive tax. Villagers have no political or judicial outlets to voice their complaints, and non-compliance is unheard of, because the penalty for such behavior is death.

The construction of a railway requires the clearing and leveling of large tracts of lands. In most countries, this means that heavy equipment, trucks and machinery are needed. Again, Burma proves to be the exception. The ruling junta sees little need to import and invest in such expensive apparatus when they can easily force a powerless peasant class to do the work with their own rudimentary tools. Villagers were forced to rotate at work camps situated along the railway in order to help clear the route of brush, large rocks and tree stumps. Depending on where they lived, villagers had to either transport earth from the sides of the railway to create a level platform on which the track could be laid, or they had to cut through deep layers of hard rock laden ground to clear a channel through which the train can pass. This incredible feat was accomplished using only hoes and tools that the farmers had made or bought for less rigorous work. As you can see from the pictures, the villagers who labored in the sun were not only the strong and able-bodied men. The army does not distinguish between men and women, adults and children when it comes to forced labor. Anybody who can carry rocks or move soil will be utilized.