Urambo struggles to end child labour

Urambo struggles to end child labourBy Gerald Kitabu
13th November 2011EmailPrintCommentsThey work long hours spraying pesticides and carrying heavy loads on the farms and handle dangerous tools. The tasks affect development leading to realising their full potentialities.

They are trapped in this pitiable condition of child labour because of abject poverty of parents in Urambo District and Tabora Region as well as poor learning infrastructures.

As a result, and due to the fact that the schools in the district do not provide food, some children have gone to work on tobacco farms, hoping at least to be able to get something to eat.

“Tobacco farming is labour intensive, it requires huge man power, so in order to maximise profit, plantation owners go for cheap labour; so they ‘import’ as many young children as possible from other areas but the latter are not paid until tobacco purchasing time,” he said.

Urambo is a leading tobacco growing district in Tabora Region, which is also the biggest producer of the crop in the country. In 2008/9, it produced 16 million kilogrammes of tobacco worth Sh41 billion and the following season it produced 23 kilogrammes worth more than Sh66 billion. Estimates for 2010/11 stand at 31 kilogrammes worth Sh71 billion.

Work on tobacco farms is pulling many children away from school. Worse still the working environment is bad.

Justus Molai is the Urambo District Executive Director. In a recent exclusive interview with The Guardian on Sunday, he says they are currently struggling to rescue children employed on different plantations in the district. “For the past three years we’ve rescued about 1,600 children out of more than 3,000 and the work is still going on to make sure that child labour in tobacco farms is eradicated,” he said.

Authorities say the child labourers originate mainly from Singida and Kigoma regions. Despite working in very risky environment, they are paid very low wages or are not paid at all.

Molai says his district has embarked on sensitisation campaigns against child labour and making sure that there is good learning environment for students including school feeding programmes to keep students in schools.

For her part, Vice-President of Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco growing areas (ECLT), which is working with local organisations in Urambo and Sikonge districts, Barbara Martellini said they have realised that at least one out of eight children involved in labour on the tobacco farms is an orphan.

ECLT is a multi-stakeholder initiative of unions, growers and companies in the tobacco sector, which work together to reduce child labour in the world.

Martellini says child labour in tobacco growing is wrong because it denies children education opportunities, learning about the world and preventing them to develop skills needed to get through life and fulfill their potentials.

She explains that ECLT has worked in Tanzania since January 2004, partnering with several non governmental organisations under ILO coordination in Urambo district on two projects, covering a total of 36 villages. “In the course of working in the districts, we have prevented hundreds of children from entering child labour… 450 families were supported to set up additional income generating activities, 27 schools and one dormitory for girls were built.

“Saving centres were created, health and sanitation structures were provided. Extension services were trained to address child labour and a monitoring system was implemented,” she explains.

Mary Kibogoya, Acting Director of the PROPER, a project supported by ECLT says from July 2011 to December 2015, her project expects to withdraw nearly 6,000 children from child labour while a further 1,800 will be prevented from entering child labour.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY

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