Child labour is harmful for the national economy

The survey carried out in 2014 has further revealed that about 92.4 per cent of children in child labour work as unpaid family helpers while 4 per cent work in paid employment.

Apart from Tanzania, Pakistan ranks number three in the world with the highest prevalence of child and forced labour despite a significant decline in the number of child labourers recorded worldwide.

According to The Global Slavery Index 2013, Pakistan comes third, after Mauritania and Haiti, in the prevalence of child labour while the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that the overall number of child labourers has declined from 200 million in 2000 to 168 million in 2014.

In Tanzania children engaged in child labour in rural areas is 35.6 per cent high compared to urban areas with 18 per cent. During the official launch of the survey conducted by NBS in collaboration with Internatinal Labour Organizations (ILO), United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) and funded by UK-Department for International Development, World Bank (WB) and Canada was aimed to provide statistical information on the extent, characteristics, causes and consequences of child labour in the country and to determine the conditions of work and their effects on health,education and development of the working child.

It is our hope that the outcome of the survey will provide the foundation for both the government and other stakeholders to determine and assess the implementation of the national development vision 2025 and other national development plans including sustainable development goals 2030 concerning the right for protecting and developing children.

According to the survey, agriculture, forestry and fishing industry employs the biggest number of children in rural areas with 97.0 per cent while in urban employs 70.1 per cent with most of them spend an average of 23 hours per week working in different economic activities.

However, the proportion of girls in hazardous child labour is slightly larger for 75.8 per cent than that of boys with 73.6 per cent. Dar es Salaam had higher proportion of children in hazardous child labour for 96.8 per cent compare to other 76.4 per cent and rural areas 74.1 per cent.

The main challenges existing in the community is the poor interpretation for development, as most families engage their children in hazardous works believing that they are providing better skills to them. Our community has to understand children needs intensive care and protection far from hazardous environment for betterment of their future.

All in all, child labour is also harmful for the national economy, as it undermines efforts to create a skilled work force which is critical for a modern knowledge economy and the achievement of the ambitious targets laid down in the five year development plan.