Over the last few months, we have been involved in several studies on child labour, child trafficking and other issues affecting orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi.

Covering almost three quarters of the country, we have a larger picture of what child labour is at national level. The stories we have uncovered are so pathetic, the conditions pitiable and wretched, the work involved is abject. 

I stand on this forum to share with the reader the stories as per the studies, the strategies and programmes undertaken by individuals and organisations. I will then bring to the attention of policy makers what is lacking on our agenda before suggesting some strategies that we need to embark on to assuage these sufferings. 

Children as young as 10 years are engaged as child labourers mostly in tobacco estates in Mzimba, Rumphi, Mangochi, Kasungu and Mchinji. These future leaders of Malawi are trafficked from Mulanje, Thyolo, Lilongwe, Dedza, Salima and Ntcheu. While both girls and boys are trafficked for child labour, boys are preferred for agricultural work, while girls are engaged for prostitution and domestic work. Boys are mostly preferred.  

While there is both internal and external trafficking, internal trafficking is more prominent than external. Externally, children are trafficked to other countries particularly Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. 

Almost in all studies, we have noted that poverty is the main push factor leading to child labour followed by cheap labour. Most of the children are Chewas, Yaos and Lomwes. The children are trafficked mainly though public transport and they use both formal and informal routes.  

The sad thing is that there is no proper recording of children trafficked for child labour due to several factors including a deficient in technical and financial capacity. The other weakness at national scale is that there is no clear policy on child labour or child trafficking and those promoting this modern slavery have not been punished enough.
In actual fact 69% of responses indicated that culprits have not been punished. In Mangochi, we found young girls working as tobacco graders, while at one estate a young boy was herding goats during the day and worked as a security officer at night. During estates visits, it was even pathetic to find children hiding under tobacco heaps, failing to breathe as they did not want to return to their homes because of poverty. 

In Mchinji, children told us of miseries they went through by herding cattle for three farmers without a single pay in nine months. A girl as young as 12 was pregnant at one tobacco estate at the same time taking care of other three orphaned siblings. 

Stories from Mzimba district labour office are even worse with children and parents dumped in forests without pay after working at an estate. Children are walking long distances without food or proper accommodation.  

The worse thing is that those trafficked to these remote estates do not have the opportunity to access primary education or even formal education. In actual fact, in these remote areas, there is no civilised life that can promote education rather than the slavery promoted by these selfish farmers. 

On the lighter note, several organisations are working on child labour and child trafficking. For example, the programme funded by ILO/IPEC could be the largest at national level. In addition, projects funded by UNICEF, Malawi Red Cross, United Nation High Commission for Refugees and other donors are also doing a commendable job to reduce child labour. In general the projects are withdrawing child labourers who are in turn rehabilitated to return to school. 

Some are promoting income generating activities among children who are older to return to schools. Several community based programmes are supporting vulnerable households with IGAs. Children are receiving scholastic materials. Others are provided with vocational training in carpentry, brick laying, tailoring, and home economics among others. 

However, there is no commitment from the policy makers in particular members of Parliament, local leaders and chiefs. In actual fact in Mangochi districts, withdrawn children are taken to schools that are understaffed. In one case, a primary school of standard 1 to 8 had only one teacher or two if the wife is involved. The wife had to do her normal household chores, farming and teach. In many cases children were given assignments that took three months to be marked. This is promoting school drop outs. It should also be pointed out here that several cultural practices are promoting child labour as young people after initiation are regarded as adults and encouraged to get married. In Malawi as long as parent have consented on marriage, that is accepted. 

These are affecting the positive outcome of the programmes aiming to reduce child labour. It is even pathetic to note that the Tenancy Bill that was developed to reduce such evils has not received the required attention from our parliamentarians. May be because they are estate owners themselves. 

It is pitiable to note that such issues have failed to be discussed with sober minds at cabinet as well as national scale. While I do appreciate that there is now a budget allocation on child labour activities at national level, the money is not enough. Today District Social Welfare Officers who are poorly paid are using the same resources to repatriate, accommodate and even feed the victims.  

Police officers are walking long distances or cycle to assist the communities on these issues. Communities are very supportive, but they lack several materials to meet their targets. What is the problem with our parliament when you consider the sort of debates at national level? 

Today, we want to sign an MOU to make sure that the already fragile economy does not collapse. As a country we think SADC will guide us into development and solving our social and yet dim-witted issues.  

Politicians that we entrusted to develop our rural areas are busy driving in cities and partying all the time. Leaders who could help communities reduce poverty spend the whole day debating on section 65 for years and years. Parliamentarians who have been in the house for over three decade should now consider the pride of the country rather than their own personal benefits.  

Do we really understand that it take a second to destroy a country? Is there something we can show on development in our constituencies? Is promoting football, the only strategy to reduce child labour? Who will provide school materials? Who will build schools and health centres? Who will promote good agricultural programmes at community level, who will write proposal to secure funding on education? Is there any chance that we can solve this futility next year during general elections? Let those who want to develop this country do so without any disturbance from imbecile leaders. MPs should work with their people to address some of these problems.

Let the government work with the opposition to reduce poverty. Failing to educate children is breeding killers.

Failing to protect our girls is promoting HIV and Aids. This will increase unwanted pregnancies, early marriages, prostitution and even affect the future of the whole nation. I can not understand that our children should be contributing to the economies of other countries through slaverly. I can not understand that today one teacher should be teaching classes 1 to 8. It is even to no purpose that a primary school can finish a term without supervision from district officials.  

In conclusion, Malawi is full of child labourers. These children are supposed to be in school and be protected by the constitution. They are working in very bad conditions and this will require a multi-stakeholder approach. This approach will require the leadership of our MPs who are currently on a political break of selfishness. The country has no strategy or logical framework to combat child trafficking and child labour. There is no collaboration or networking despite several great works done by individuals and organisations. The country has a weak data and recording management systems and even guiding principles are not developed. 

The government could express more commitment by approving some of the bills and policies aimed at reducing this problem. Bold and new anti trafficking legislation is required and consider the introduction of child registration as a priority for child protection. Capacity building for law enforcers is required including those in immigration and courts. Let the communities be involved including the children themselves in programme planning and policy formulation. Referral networks by stakeholders could be enhanced at national and community level.  

Finally, the President, cabinet, heads of department could take a reading role in raising awareness on this social problem. Otherwise, we will have 6,500,000 child labourers rather than Section 65. See my tears. 

In Malawi, the government is carrying out a campaign to register the births of children under 18 years of age.The United Nations Children Fund is leading the effort, which is aimed in part at curbing child labor and trafficking.Nine of the country’s 28 districts are now implementing the exercise.VOA’s Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.

Statistics indicate that about 30 percent of children under 17 are vulnerable to labor exploitation and child trafficking. Young people in that age group are estimated to make up half of the country’s population. The 2007 US State Department report published in June titled Trafficking in Persons, says the children are mainly used as cheap labor on farms and for small businesses. As for trafficking, the report says fraudulent job offers lure children into forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.

Peter Chitedze is the Director of the National Registration Bureau. He says registering children will allow the government to verify their identities and their age.

“The good thing about this system," he says, "is that once a child is registered at birth, the challenges will be managed professionally. The beneficiaries will be the holders of the document and it’s the document that one cannot afford to do without. Chances of forgery with people using other people’s documents will be very, very, very minimal.”

Malawi does not have comprehensive laws on child protection.

The country is still using the Birth and Deaths Act of 1904, which does not require births – or deaths – to be officially recorded.

Until now, it has been up to the parent or guardian to travel to Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre, to register the birth of a child. They also have to pay the administrative costs of issuing a birth certificate. With high levels of poverty, most Malawians can not afford to travel to the registration offices, or pay for the birth certificates.

In Malawi, more than three-quarters of the country’s 12 million people live on less than a US $1 a day.

But some efforts are being made towards protecting children.

In 2005, the government, with funding from UNICEF, trained a group of 400 child protection officers. They were deployed as frontline officers to all 193 constituencies represented in the national assembly. The officers were trained to report any suspected cases of trafficking in their respective districts.
 
Two years ago, the cabinet approved the Child Care, Protection and Justice Bill, which defines child trafficking and sets a penalty of life imprisonment for convicted traffickers. The bill is yet to be tabled in parliament. 

Maxwell Matewere is executive director of Eye of the Child, an NGO whose activities are directed by the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child. He says the issue of birth legislation was long overdue and will help the organization in its effort to tackle child exploitation.“The government was supposed to introduce this sometime back as a constitutional right to the children. We have been facing lots of problems because we have been failing to identify some of the children.

He sayss, "Even if we wanted to introduce some intervention to campaign against child labor, child trafficking sexual abuse, we [do not have] actual data and statistics regarding the number of children in that particular area.”

But critics say until the Bill is ratified, children remain at risk.

Malawi is a signatory to numerous international agreements to protect children. They include the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and International Labor Organization conventions that set a minimum working age of 18, and that outlaw child labor.

The police at Kwesimintsim in the Western Region on Monday intercepted a 207 Mercedes Benz bus carrying six suspected child traffickers and 17 children said to have been picked from Garu in the Upper East Region for sale in Cote d'Ivoire.

According to the Daily Graphic, all the six men are in police custody, while the 17 children have been handed over to the Western Regional Office of the Department of Social Welfare.

The six suspects are George Laree, 20; Azuma Laree, 31; Jean Badu, 42; Combite Latie, 30; Najet Lamboni, 33, and Laree Lamboni, 37.

A patrol team of the Kwesimintsim Police, led by the District Commander, ASP Magnus Sam, said the bus was intercepted while it was conveying the suspects and the victims towards the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border at Elubo.

The team said the children were being taken to Cote d'Ivoire to work as labourers on cocoa farms.

The police said during interrogation, all the children appeared to have been coached as to what to tell the police and other, officials when questioned on where they were going and who they were travelling with.

The suspects denied knowledge of the children and said they had only boarded the same bus at the Kumasi Lorry Station and that they had never seen the children before.

But when the police took the suspects to where the children were and the children were asked, to identify whom they were travelling with, one of the suspects, Azuma Laree, who had changed his earlier statement and told the police that he was travelling with only one child, had six other children identifying him as the one with whom they were travelling:

Other suspects were identified by two or three of the children as those responsible for their trip.

However, some of the older ones, told the police that they were travelling on their own and initially refused to board the bus which had arrived to convey them to the Department of Social Welfare.

They demanded that the suspects, whom they claimed they did not know, should be released to go with them.

One of the children, a little girl of about seven, said she was travelling with Azuma Laree to Cote d'Ivoire to work as a baby sitter for a family in that country.

Speaking to the press after preliminary police interrogations, the Kwesimintsim District Police Crime Officer, ASP Boakye Ansah, said the bus conveying the suspects and the children was intercepted when it was branching off at Apemanim towards the Elubo Border.

"The leader of the team, who is also the District Commander of Kwesimintsim, became suspicious and demanded to know whom the children were travelling with and where they were going," he said.

ASP Boakye Ansah said there was no answer to the question and so he asked the driver to make a U-turn to the police station.

In a statement to the Police, the driver said his vehicle had not been hired and that he was at the station when the children came and bought the tickets and boarded the vehicle one by one.

The only passengers aboard the 207 bus were the suspects and the victims. According to the suspects, they were from Togo and were only passing through Garu to Cote d’Ivoire.

THE National Executive Council of the Rubber Outgrowers and Agents Association (ROAA), has banned child labour on its rubber plantations with immediate effect.

The ban has been necessitated by reports that some outgrowers have been engaging minors to work on their plantations.

Nana Asaa-Kofi III, national chairman of the association, announced the ban at an extraordinary general meeting at Agona Nkwanta in the Ahanta West District last Saturday.

He explained that the ban was to prevent children from sacrificing their education and future leadership opportunities for menial task on the farms.

Nana Asaa-Kofi warned that any member found exploiting children in any form would be sanctioned.

He said: "Let us encourage our children to go to school and let us also cater adequately for their social and educational needs for them to grow to take up responsible positions in society."

He disclosed that the imposition of three per cent African discount in the price mechanism of rubber has been waived with effect from July 1.

Nana Asaa-Kofi said members have agreed to contribute 0.9 per cent of the three per cent discount waiver towards the establishment of the association’s 16-hectare rubber nursery at Nsuaem in the Wassa West District.

He also expressed concern over the supply of poor quality rubber by some members to the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) factory and advised members guilty of that practice to desist from it immediately.

Nana Asaa-Kofi therefore appealed to members to help expose the few bad nuts within their ranks so as to ensure the safety and growth of the rubber industry in Ghana.

Forty-three child labour clubs with membership of 1,500 have so far been formed in schools throughout the country by the Ghana Education Service (GES), to promote and involve children in creating awareness of worst forms of child labour.

Mrs Josephine Kufour-Duah, a Director at the Basic Education Division of the GES in Accra, who disclosed this, said some drop-out children have been enrolled in school, while those above school-going age were placed in apprenticeships.

She was speaking at a three-day “Supporting Children’s Rights through the Arts and the Media (SCREAM)” training of trainers workshops for forty-five participants selected from Volta, Eastern and Greater Accra Regions, in Kumasi on Monday.

Under the theme,” Strengthening Children’s Participation to Fight against Child Labour through SCREAM Methodology and Tools”, the workshop was organized by the GES in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

Mrs Kufour-Duah, who is the National Co-ordinator of the SCREAM methodology programme, explained that it was a social mobilization initiative to assist teachers, educators, social partners and other key players, by equipping them with awareness and sensitization programmes, to raise their skills to enable them play a major role in activities to fight against child labour.

She noted that, children were very forceful and powerful advocates to their peers, parents and their communities, and that their involvement in the child labour campaign was crucial to achieve the desired objectives.

Mrs Kufour-Duah said adequate awareness would be created in children, using specific modules to provoke their mental and emotional level to the child labour menace.

The recognition of children’s efforts, she indicated, was considered very appropriate, adding that, “it is in conformity with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

The National Co-ordinator stated that, children have the right to participate in decisions that affected them and must therefore be encourage and empowered to play meaningful roles in the crusade against the worst form of child labour.

Mr Joseph Clement Amoah, Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of Education lauded the programme but indicated, however that, greater success would only be achieved if the participants who worked directly with the children imparted the knowledge acquired to them.

AHMEDABAD: The state government has resolved to free the state from child labour by 2010 and has prepared a state action plan towards this goal.

As part of this project, a three-day training programme — ‘Master trainers on elimination of child labour'— was organized at Gandhi Labour Institute (GLI) by labour and employment department, beginning Monday.

Massive raids at units employing tender hands have already been conducted across the state. In Surat alone, 170 children were rescued over the last few months. "Out of the 170 child labourers, 60 belonged Bihar's Purnia district alone. We contacted their parents in Bihar and all children have been sent on July 5. “said K M Patel Assistant Labour Commissioner, Surat. "In the earlier raids we found many children working again at the same unit.

So, this time, we are ensuring that the rescued children get rehabilitated properly," says Patel.

The release and rescue operations have started in Gujarat through a task force. According to Vatsala Vasudeva, labour commissioner, Government of Gujarat, "Between April and July this year 188 child labourers have been rescued from different parts of the state. Out of 188 children 82 children were from Bihar and 66 from Gujarat.

Some of them are from Nepal too. First, we try to send these children back to their native villages if they are from outside Gujarat. The rest are being enrolled in schools under different government schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, or National Child Labour Project".

As per the 2001 census there were 4, 85,530 children below 14 years of age who are working in different sectors in the state. Experts believe that the numbers have risen over the year. In Gujarat, child labourers are generally found in zari work, zardozi-work, goldsmith shops, cloth market, domestic work, eateries and restaurants.

"Our goal is that the state should be free from child labour in 2010. For this, we have involved different government departments, NGOs, and academicians in the mission. We have formed core teams in different districts", says R M Patel, principal secretary, labour and employment department.

"We believe that any child who is out of school below the age of 14 should be considered as child labourer. If child labour is eliminated only then adults can get employment" says child rights activist Sukhdev Patel. "people employ children because they are cheap, obedient and easy to harass. If there is no child labour unemployed person get employment and will have bargaining power as there is a shortage of labour", says Sukhdev Patel.

Traditional Authority Bvumbwe of Thyolo has asked parents who work as tenants at tea estates and tobacco farms in the area to send their children to school to prepare them for their futures.

T/A Bvumbwe made the appeal recently in the district when Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) commemorated the World Day Against Child Labour.

“Naming’omba is surrounded by many companies and many people, including children get jobs in these companies. Most of these companies provide cheap labour,” said Chief Bvumbwe.

Bvumbwe said it was not proper for companies to offer jobs to children, saying the tendency was destroying many children’s future.

“When you offer jobs to these children, know that you are killing them,” said the chief.

He, therefore, asked tea and tobacco estate owners to desist from employing children, saying education was crucial to them.

“Let these children go to school at this age so that in future they too become managers of big companies,” he said.

In his remarks, Ecam Executive Director Buxton Kayuni also decried the tendency of offering jobs to children.

“The choice of this year’s theme is ‘education’,” he said.

He said Ecam was concerned with children’s affairs today, adding that many institutions of employment were bent towards giving jobs to children.

He said his organisation took issues of child labour seriously, adding that child labour was illegal in Malawi.

“We are also aware that child labour is not just legally wrong but also morally wrong. We, therefore, cannot condone the malpractice as progressive employers,” he said.

Kayuni also said to stop people from practising child labour in the country, they run training projects in development of national code of conduct and national list on hazardous work, among other projects.

Ecam was registered under the Trustees Act of 1963 and has a representation over 200 companies in the country.

It seems that in our society, some of those that should be protected by the society are being exploited badly.

Earlier this week, we learnt from media reports that children in Arusha are being made to work far beyond their capability and paid a mere pittance.

This is going on in the modern Tengeru Women Market in Arusha where children are routinely used as labourers for carrying commodities.

Moreover, some of the children are also used to sell goods in the market. In fact, as many as 600 children are doing one activity or another that concerns trade in this market.

One feels sorry for these children. You tend to wonder: what about school?

It is very possible that many of the children are juggling school with their work in the market.

Therefore, they really cannot perform well at school, as they should. They are mere children after all.

They get tired easily. Their little and thus, weak bodies can hardly sustain the job they are made to do.

Some children complain of the heavy loads they have to carry in the market. We all know that this can surely cause them to be stunted.

Their bodies will be unable to grow, as they should.

And growing is an important part of childhood.

These children are therefore, being denied of a fundamental right: the right to just be children. Indeed, it does not matter how long we beat about the bush as to who is responsible for this misery.

The responsibility lies with the parent. Let us call a spade, a spade and tackle the matter as it should be tackled.

Parents have failed in their primary duty as parents: to take care of their children and to protect them.

It is sad to see that children are now left to fend for themselves or even forced to work so as to help feed their siblings and even parents themselves.

It is the complete opposite of the normal order of things.

That is why we sometimes hear that some children are forced to grow up too quickly; this is because they are saddled with too much responsibility thus, instead of engaging in normal child-like activities, they carry out duties which are normally performed by adults.

Authorities have a role to play in this sorry affair.

There should be a law to be observed strictly, which should require parents to take their kids to school and keep them there, at least till they finish primary school education.

Employment of children should be actively discouraged except in light activities and for short periods of time so that their education will not suffer.

Authorities should physically visit places where children are likely to be unlawfully employed and the employers should face the law. We have to start somewhere, otherwise we shall have a section of the society, who will not even be able to read and write.

This will be sad indeed, because there was a time, actually in the 1980s when our dear country had the highest literacy rate in the developing world.

And it is time authorities started stressing to the public that it is advisable and sensible and good to have the number of children`s parents can take care of.

The cost of living is rising every day, so society should be encouraged to be careful and adopt ways that can help them have the number of children that they can cater for.

In this way, we shall not have children working so that they and their siblings can have food.
Moving on, media reports have it that the police in Dar es Salaam Region intend to introduce special patrols which will help to reduce crime.

The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner Suleiman Kovu, said this at the beginning of this week.

The special patrols will definitely be something good because they will help to catch the would-be criminals before they even have the opportunity to carry out their evil acts.

These are sweet words to wananchi for thieving has increased tremendously. Every passing day we hear or read about someone`s house being burgled or someone losing his/her car and these thieves have no mercy; they operate with guns, machetes and any thing else that can kill or seriously injure the victim.

The police have indeed taken a step in the right direction by putting special patrols in place.

International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s National Project Manager in Pakistan, Saba Mohsin Raza has said that the country was experiencing "worst forms of child labour" with over 3.3 million child workers.

She said that out of the four provinces, Punjab had the highest ratio of child labour, mainly due to "lack of education and health facilities". She also said that the menace was affecting the country's image worldwide and that urgent steps should be taken to tackle it.

"This grave situation is ruining not only the health of child workers but also their future in addition to eclipsing the country's image in the outer world. This social menace demands of all stakeholders to take more practical initiatives so that the situation could effectively be rectified and in this respect the role that the media can play is worth mentioning," The Nation quoted Saba as saying at a lecture on child labour organized in collaboration with the ILO.

The lecture was part of the ILO's ongoing national media plan of action to sensitise the media persons about the child labour issues in the country and giving basic training to Mass Communication students before entering into their practical field.

She termed these growing statistics 'a point of serious concern' for all the stakeholders and said, "It is our collective responsibility to come up with practical steps to control this menace." She urged the students to know the requirement and seriousness of their profession regarding the sensitivity of different social issues in the country and advised them to adopt a positive approach in their professional life.