COMMENT: Farms, mines maintain infamy for child labour – The Chronicle

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

PLANS by Government to establish a National Action Plan targeted at eliminating child labour, which is reportedly mostly prevalent in the country's agriculture and mining sectors, are commendable.

Government is signatory to international Conventions 138 and 182 promulgated under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to address minimum age for a person to be employed and worse forms of child labour respectively.

National laws or regulations may permit the employment or work of children between 13 and 16 years on light work which is however not likely to be harmful to their health or development, does not disturb their attendance at school, participation in vocational orientation or training programmes or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received.

Legally, the minimum age for children to start formal work shall not be less than 18 years.

Hazardous work is classified as any type of employment or work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to jeopardise the health, safety or morals of children.

Child labour refers to work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

This is work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

Child labour in its nature is a violation of fundamental human rights and has been shown to hinder children's development, potentially leading to lifelong physical or psychological damage.

Evidence points to a strong link between household poverty and child labour.

Child labour perpetuates poverty across generations by keeping the children of the poor out of school and limiting their prospects for upward social mobility.

This lowering of human capital has been linked to slow economic growth and social development.

Whether or not particular forms of work can be called child labour depends on the child's age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries.

The distinction mainly lies in the exploitative nature of child labour whereas child work is part of socialisation of young people preparing them to be productive future citizens of society.

The participation of children or adolescents above the minimum age for admission to employment in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive.

It should be noted that not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination.

Activities done by children to assist in a family business or to earn pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays contribute to children's development and to the welfare of their families.

In developing countries, children can be seen engaged in some forms of labour such as working in the fields, herding livestock, selling goods at market stalls or hawking around on behalf of their families.

Along the country's highways, children are sometimes seen standing by the roadside selling fruits, farm produce, small livestock and other items.

These activities provide young people with skills and experience and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.

Child labour surveys carried out by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in conjunction with ZimStat, showed that child labour was prevalent on some tobacco farms where children younger than 18 years are reportedly engaged in exploitative work where they also earn meagre wages.

Over the years, the mining sector has also been fingered in child exploitation.
There are serious forms of child labour that are related to slavery or similar to slavery.

These include the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, forced or compulsory labour, forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

Recent studies by ILO have shown that the abolition of child labour in developing economies could generate economic benefits much greater than the costs, which are mostly associated with investment in better schooling and social services.

Human rights apply to all age groups.

Children have the same general human rights as adults, but young people have certain particular and additional rights due to their dependence, vulnerability, developmental needs and there is a need by all stakeholders and every country to identify these children's rights and provide special needs for protection.

There are global concerns on child labour which have resulted in the crafting of some international normative frameworks like the Convention 138 on minimum age of 1973 and Convention 182 of 1999 on worst forms of child labour both of which Zimbabwe ratified.

A recent National Employment Council (NEC) chairpersons, councillors and general secretaries' symposium held in Victoria Falls showed that the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare conducted child labour surveys in 1999 and 2004, 2008 and 2019 focusing on Conventions C138 and C182.

The surveys showed that child labour existed in Zimbabwe mainly in the agricultural sector and poverty was identified as the driving force.

Speaking at the NEC symposium, deputy director for International Relations in the Ministry of Public Service Ms Tariro Jongwe said the tobacco sector is targeted by Government and international partners due to prevalence of child labour.

She said in an effort to drive towards elimination, Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the private players in the tobacco industry for elimination of child labour in the tobacco sector and a technical working group on child labour was established.

“Studies showed that child labour existed in Zimbabwe mainly in the agricultural tobacco sector and a memorandum of understanding has been signed with an organisation called Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco Farming. The other initiative that, as Government we intend to do, is to come up with what we call a National Standing Committee on child labour and this should be in place by end of October.

“This will comprise all stakeholders including Government, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, National Employment Councils and others involved in child protection. The intention is to develop a National Action Plan on child labour,” said Ms Jongwe.

The National Action Plan will help in awareness raising, strengthening multi-stakeholder interventions and coordination and leverage on collective resources.

All NECs in the country were requested to develop lists of hazardous work where children are not supposed to work.

However, only 23 out of 46 NECs have complied and developed a list of hazardous work where children are not supposed to work in their sectors, Ms Jongwe said.

Work is also underway to establish a child labour unit in the department of labour administration.

There are numerous activities also being done towards sensitisation and awareness campaigns on child labour in the tobacco, cotton, sugar and mining sectors in Zimbabwe.

Government has come up with some policy responses and support to vulnerable members of society to address the push factors of child labour.

These include the Harmonised Social Cash Transfer, Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) programme, provision of free education and health.

These are all aimed at accelerating global efforts towards the elimination of child labour.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8.7 expresses the commitment of United Nations (UN) Member

States to come up with measures to end child labour in all its forms by 2025.

The global conference on the elimination of child labour was held from 15 to 20 May 2020 in Durban, South Africa where member states adopted the Durban Call For Action towards the elimination of child labour.

This commits member states to track their own progress during the period 2022 to 2025.

There are six commitment areas and these include making decent work a reality for adults and youth above the minimum age for work by accelerating multi-stakeholder efforts to eliminate child labour, with priority given to the worst forms of child labour.

The Durban Call For Action commits member states to end child labour in agriculture, strengthen the prevention and elimination of child labour, including its worst forms, forced labour, modern slavery and trafficking in persons, and the protection of survivors through data-driven and survivor-informed policy and programmatic responses.

There is also need to realize children's right to education and ensure universal access to free, compulsory, quality, equitable and inclusive education and training.

Countries should work towards achieving universal access to social protection, increase financing and international cooperation for the elimination of child labour and forced labour.

Member states should eliminate the worst forms of child labour practices such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, child prostitution and pornography, using children for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs and work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

The convention requires ratifying states to provide the necessary and appropriate direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour and for their rehabilitation and social integration.

Public Service Permanent Secretary Mr Simon Masanga said child labour has a huge bearing on international relations and national development.

Labour officers have a critical role to play in combating child labour through sensitization and awareness raising, labour inspectorate function and collaboration with the social development officers to remove children exposed to child labour to places of safety.

Government has called for amendment of collective bargaining agreements to incorporate child labour issues. — @ncubeleon