By CHRISTINE MWAABA –
Agriculture in Zambia is growing, but the sector also continues to have the largest share of child labourers estimated at more than 90 per cent.
This is according to findings of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which also indicated that the trend has not reduced since 2012.
If anything, it is getting worse.
The ILO Global Estimates of child labour Results and Trends focusing on the 2012-2016 interval also notes that a number of children are trapped in child labour worldwide, but the largest proportion of children in hazardous work is in the sub-Saharan Africa.
According to ILO’ s 2012 study for child labour and modern slavery, which includes human trafficking, child labour remained primarily concentrated in agriculture.
The report indicates that nearly 92 per cent of total number of seven to 14 year-olds in employment work in agriculture, against around four per cent in services and three per cent in trade.
At the same time, some children in employment work for their families as unpaid labour.
It is worth noting that Zambia has made a number of important legal and political commitments to combat child labour.
The Government signed the United Nation (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, ratified the ILO Convention Number 138 Minimum Age admission to employment in 1976 and ILO Convention Number 182 on Worst Forms in 2002.
These instruments frame the concept of child labour and form the basis for child labour legislation enacted by countries that are signatories.
Zambia has in place laws and policies that seek to address issues of child labour.
The Employment of Young Persons and Children Cap 274 of the Laws of Zambia as amended by Act Number 10 of 2004 and the Employment Act Cap 268 of the Laws of Zambia prohibit the employment of any person under the age of 15 in line with these international legal standards.
The country’s Sixth National Development Plan (2011-2015) and the National Employment and Labour Market Policy (2006) both call for the elimination of child labour, while the follow-up Seventh National Development Plan (2017-2021) emphasises elimination of gross human rights violations such as the worst forms for child labour.
Aside from this, Zambia also has in place the National Child Labour Policy, the National Employment and Labour Market Policy, the Child Welfare Policy and Youth Policy.
The policies propose a number of measures aimed at stopping the economic exploitation of child in Zambia and provides frameworks for child labour programmes in the country.
Despite all these important commitments, child labour, particularly in the agricultural sector, continues to remain respectively high.
The last Zambia Labour Force Survey of 2008 indicated that 950,000 children between the ages of five and 14 are forced to work in various labour intensive sectors, also reducing their time in school.
Many of these children work in hazardous conditions and experience greater difficulties in attending and benefiting from school than non-working children.
Child labour not only constitutes a serious violation of the rights of the children concerned, but also has clear broader consequences for national social development.
Children growing up compromised educationally and developmentally by early involvement in work will be in a poor position to contribute to Zambia’s growth as adults.
The 2012 Inter-Agency Report provides an overview of the child labour situation in the country and how it has been changing over time.
The report analyses ways of meeting the national commitment to eliminate child labour, which include providing the poorest of the poor families with a minimum degree of social protection and providing a package of special, targeted measures aimed at removing and
preventing children from employment.
ILO national programmes coordinator for Achieving Reduction of Childlabour in Support of Education (ARISE) Chabala Mukatimui said the agricultural sector was the largest absorber of child labour at 92 per cent.
She said other child labourers were absorbed in other sectors like services, trading, domestic work, quarrying and mining.
“After comparing the percentage of child labourers in Zambia, the problem continues to remain relatively high,” Ms Mukatimui said.
She said child labour had negative effects on children physically, mentally, socially and physiologically.
She said child labour was also frequently associated with educational marginalisation leading to child school dropouts and repetition of grades.
“Some of the child labourers are combining work with school, a task which is not easy to balance compared to children that are exclusively in school,” she said.
Not too long ago, child labour cases in Mkushi District were reported to have increased due to the continued use of children on farms for family survival.
Speaking at a children protection meeting organised by Panos Institute of Southern Africa (PSAf) in Mkushi recently, District Social Welfare Officer James Mayanga said issues of child labour have a hidden face of poverty.
“We have had an increase in the number of cases regarding child labour and when you talk to parents, they will plainly tell you that our children are helping in fending for the family,” Mr Mayanga said.
He said his office has been conducting regular meeting in villages surrounding the farming community in the district.
Most of the parents lack information on the dangers of child labour and the importance of observing children rights.
Child Labour Goodwill Ambassador Samson Mutambo said child labour had the potential to retard national development if left un-checked.
Under the Zambian laws child labour is defined by the Employment of Young Persons and Children’s Act as ‘…work carried out by children under conditions which are detrimental and dangerous to the child and affects proper physical, emotional and intellectual development in
violation of international and national legislation.’
According to this definition, some of the dangerous conditions include ‘…sexual exploitation, children working underground in mining or workload, physical conditions of work and/or intensity of work in terms of duration or hours of work even when the work is termed
non-hazardous and safe.’
Ana Ache executive director Ann Ngwira said there is need for more rigorous sensitisation around issues of child labour as it is one area that has not been given the necessary attention largely due to cultural and economic issues attached to it.
“We need to have more programmes aimed at ending child labour particularly in low-income communities where it is rife, as well as around trading places, specifically focusing on zero tolerance to child labour and not just child abuse in general,” Ms Ngwira said.
Zambia Police Service National Coordinator of the Child Protection Unit Susan Liteta said many people are unaware of the fact that child labour is an offence; hence it is not often reported to relevant offices.
It is for this very reason that child labour has continued unabated.
“We need to have serious sensitisation programmes and awareness campaigns on child labour in communities,” she said.
Policy responses to child labour need to be integrated into broader national development policies rather than treating the problem as an isolated issue.
Ensuring that child labour concerns are reflected in broader policies in the areas of education, social protection and labour standards will be relevant to end child labour.