Child labour is a multifaceted problem with several interrelated causes. Studies conducted in the focus areas and elsewhere have found that poverty is one of the major causes of child labour. The worsening of the economic situation contribute to the increase in the number of children being put to work. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is also a major contributing factor to the increase of child labour. A large number of children are orphans with nobody to turn to and they have to enter the labour market to support themselves and their siblings. Others are subjected to hazardous labour in the estates by relatives who take up the guardianship role. Illiteracy and the lack of awareness on the part of parents is another major cause of child labour. Parents should be able to appreciate more their role as duty-bearers who should cater for children, and not expect their children to cater for them. They do not always see the benefit of sending children to school, against the immediate gain provided by sending children to work.
Children working in plantations are often subjected to irreversible damage to their physical, psychological and physiological development. The occupational health and safety experts consider agriculture to be among the most dangerous of occupations. Climate exposure, work that is too heavy for children and accidents such as cuts from sharpened tools are some of hazardous children are facing. Children are often involved in working with tools and machinery, handling and spraying of agrochemicals, caring for farm animals and herding cattle, crop picking and loading.
Eye of the Child observed through its situation analysis and consultations with stakeholders that the survival, proper development, and protection of children in commercial agriculture areas, are far from being guaranteed. In adequate access to basic resources like health and education and their subjection to economic exploitation bear testimony. These factors are complicated by structural problems that perpetuate the unequal distribution of resources, the discrimination and exclusion of children in need of protection and withdrawal from hazardous work in commercial agriculture areas.
Children in the target areas and elsewhere are subjected to hazardous and worst forms of child labour as they work in tobacco estates and family farms. The proportion of children working seems to be highest among tenant farmers in tobacco estates. The tenant farmers are recruited from villages and districts from afar before the beginning of the season on the basis that they have a family to bring to the estate. Thus children are generally not employed directly on the estates but they work as part of the tenant’s family. When a tenant is recruited at an estate s/he is required to achieve a production quota determined unilaterally by the owner of the estate. This quota cannot be achieved unless the entire family of the tenant participates.
Child labour is a multifaceted problem with several interrelated causes. Studies conducted in the focus areas and elsewhere have found that poverty is one of the major causes of child labour. The worsening of the economic situation in the country has contributed to the increase in the number of children being put to work. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is also a major contributing factor to the increase of child labour. A large number of children are orphans with nobody to turn to and they have to enter the labour market to support themselves and their siblings. Others are subjected to hazardous labour in the estates by relatives who take up the guardianship role. Illiteracy and the lack of awareness on the part of parents is another major cause of child labour in the focus areas. Parents should be able to appreciate more their role as duty-bearers who should cater for children, and not expect their children to cater for them. They do not always see the benefit of sending children to school, against the immediate gain provided by sending children to work.
Children working in plantations are often subjected to irreversible damage to their physical, psychological and physiological development. The occupational health and safety experts consider agriculture to be among the most dangerous of occupations. Climate exposure, work that is too heavy for children and accidents such as cuts from sharpened tools are some of hazardous children are facing. Children are often involved in working with tools and machinery, handling and spraying of agrochemicals, caring for farm animals and herding cattle, crop picking and loading.
