At least two million children aged from five to 17
years are engaged in child labour, the first Child Labour Report released by
the Uganda Bureau of Statistic (UBOS) revealed.
The report unveiled last year in September
established that the two million child labourers accounted for 16% of the
entire population of 11.5 million children in Uganda.
According to the report, child labour is among the
major causes of child abuse and exploitation and fundamental violation of
children rights.
The report further faults Child Labour for slowing
down broader national poverty reduction and development efforts on top of being
an obstacle to achieving universal education.
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| Boy sells maize during school time. Photo/Esther Namirimu |
“Children who are forced out of school into child
labour to help supplement income of their families are denied the opportunity
to acquire necessary knowledge and skills to aid them get decent employment in
future leading to the poverty cycle,” read the report.
It indicated that about 4.3 million children in
absolute terms were in work in 2011/2012
Child labour was defined in the study as work that
is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful to children. It further
includes work activities that interfere with children’s school attendance.
According to the United States Department of Labor
2012 findings on the worst forms of Child Labor, Uganda made a minimal
advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
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| Boy sells maize during school time. Photo/Esther Namirimu |
However, gaps remain in legislation and enforcement
efforts. The legal framework lacks protection for boys from prostitution. In
addition, there is a gap between the age to which education is compulsory and
the minimum age for work.
Labor inspections are not carried out in rural
areas. Children continue to engage in the worst forms of child labor, primarily
in hazardous forms of agriculture and in domestic service.
Prevalence
and sectoral distribution of the worst forms of Child Labor
According to the United States Department of Labor
2012 findings on the worst forms of Child Labor, Children in Uganda are engaged
in the worst forms of child labor, primarily in hazardous forms of agriculture
and in domestic service. It is estimated that the majority of children who work
in Uganda are found working in agriculture to produce tobacco, coffee, tea,
rice and sugarcane, and vanilla.
Children who work on tobacco farms in Uganda are
exposed to health hazards and risk developmental defects and respiratory
diseases due to long working hours and exposure to tobacco fumes.
Children working in agriculture may use dangerous
tools, carry heavy loads, and be exposed to harmful pesticides.
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| Boy sells maize during school time. Photo/Esther Namirimu |
Children in Uganda work in fishing; these children
receive little or no pay, work long hours processing and smoking fish, and risk
injuries from burns and fatigue.
In the Karamoja region of Uganda, children herd
cattle and may fall victim to involvement in cattle rustling. These children
risk attacks by armed men, isolation, exposure to extreme weather conditions,
and denial of access to schooling. Children in Uganda work in hazardous
activities related to the production of bricks. Children in Uganda also burn
and carry charcoal. Although evidence is limited, there are reports that
children work in hazardous activities in the production of stone.
Children in Uganda engage in cross-border trading.
Many children who live at border crossing towns and villages drop out of school
to carry heavy loads such as merchandise on their heads to and from Ugandan
border points.
Children work as street vendors selling small items,
some of these children end up being forced to beg on the streets.
Children risk involvement in the worst forms of
child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, while working
in bars and restaurants. Some children as young as age 10 are victims of
commercial sexual exploitation. Children in the custody of pimps and brothel
owners are used to produce pornographic materials. These children are also
exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
Uganda is a source and destination country for the
trafficking of children. Children are trafficked internally for sexual
exploitation and forced labor in fishing, agriculture, and domestic service.
In some cases, Ugandan children have been trafficked
to Central, East, and North Africa for commercial sexual exploitation and
forced labor. Children from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya,
Rwanda, and Tanzania are also trafficked to Uganda for commercial sexual exploitation
and agricultural work.
As of 2011, there had been no reports that the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) had abducted and conscripted children within
Uganda for six years; however, about 5,000 Ugandan children previously abducted
by the LRA were still missing.
Fight
against child labour in Uganda
The International Labour Organization and the Government
of Uganda through the Ministry of Education and sports have joined efforts to
start fighting Child Labour through improving education.
Cathy Mugerwa, Principal Education Officer and program
coordinator of this project said that they are supporting the development of
implementation framework of the Non-formal Education policy for educationally
disadvantaged children.
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| Boy sells maize during school time. |
The Universal primary education (UPE) programme
(1997) and the Education act (2008). In November 2006, the National Child
Labour Policy was enacted and a five year National Action Plan (NAP) for
elimination of child labour in Uganda was adopted and officially launched in June2012.
Still and despite all good intentions and estimated
1.76million, 5-7 year olds in Uganda are engaged in child labour (UCW 2008).
The highest concentrations of working children are
found in Western Uganda (55.7%); followed by Eastern and Southern Uganda with
53% and 52.1% respectively, with 45.4% in the Northern region and 25.3% in
Kampala.
Mugerwa added that in all regions, more males than
females are engaged in child labour although the variations are rather slight.
Child labour in Uganda manifests itself in various forms and in different
sectors including the commercial and subsistence agriculture, domestic service,
construction, fishing, stone and sand quarries, service industries such as
hotels and bars. Commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, unpaid
servitude/bondage and other forms of exploitation are persisting.
National Programme Officer of the international
Labour Organization, Acayo Jackie Banya, said that employment of children
undermines an enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness. The prevention of
child labour is one of the basic principles of the ILO.
“To reduce and finally end child labour, we need
great efforts by all members of the society; we must all work hand in hand to
promotes conditions that favour child rights,” she added.
Banya also notes that employing children undermines
their potential of becoming intellectual human capital which is urgently
required for improving the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises and
our country.
“We do not stop children from working if they have
attained the minimum age of 14 years and this has to be domesticated work; work
which is not dangerous to the child’s health. Imagine a child carrying a heavy
machine that dehumanizes the child,” she added.
Banya noted that we would not be having children
working if they were also forced to be in school and take advantage of the
Universal Primary Education.
Laws
and Regulations on the Worst Forms of Child Labor
The Employment Act sets the minimum age for work in
Uganda at 14. The Act permits children ages 12 to 14 to perform light work
under adult supervision if it does not interfere with the child’s education. In
addition, no child younger than age 18 may be employed in hazardous work or
between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The
Government enacted the Employment (Employment of Children) Regulations 2012.
The Regulations contain restrictions on the employment of children, penalties
for violations, a list of hazardous activities prohibited to children under 18,
and a list of activities considered light work.
The list of
hazardous activities includes prohibitions by different age groups of tasks in
a variety of areas including several agricultural sectors, construction,
mining, and urban informal work. The regulations also prohibit the use,
procurement, or offering of a child for illicit activities, including the
production and trafficking of drugs.
The Government also provides guidelines to serve as
a tool for labor inspectors to identify incidences of hazardous child labor.
The guidelines define hazardous work as exposure to dangerous machinery,
carrying heavy loads, exposure to harassment, including physical,
psychological, and sexual abuse, and work under strenuous conditions for long
hours. Domestic service by children younger than age 14 is included in the list
of hazardous occupations.
Primary education in Uganda is free and compulsory
through age 12; however, fees for school supplies and operating costs are often
prohibitive for families. The law leaves children ages 12 to 14 particularly
vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor as they are not required to be in
school nor are they legally permitted to work in areas other than light work.
The Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act of
2009(PTIP) prohibits child trafficking and outlines penalties for violators.
The Act also provides for protection, assistance, and support for trafficking
victims and reparation to victims of trafficking to and from Uganda. The use of
children to commit crimes is prohibited under the Act.
The Ugandan Constitution prohibits slavery and
forced labor. Procuring or attempting to procure a girl under the age of 21 for
sexual intent or to become a prostitute is prohibited under the Penal Code.
However, boys under age 18 are not protected.
Prostitution, procurement, and pimping of a
prostitute are illegal in Uganda. However, these laws only address female
victims, leaving boys unprotected from prostitution.
The Penal Code penalizes intermediaries but does not
appear to penalize clients. In addition, the Penal Code penalizes those who
engage in prostitution, which leaves room for children who are procured or
offered for prostitution to be treated as offenders rather than victims.
The production of pornography, regardless of the age
of the subject, with the intent to distribute is illegal under the Penal Code
and the Computer Misuse Act of 2011. There does not appear to be legislation
specifically addressing the production or possession of child pornography.
The minimum age for voluntary military service in
Uganda is 18, and there is no conscription for the military.
Key
achievements
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and social
development has established a joint committee with the Ministry of Education
and Sports to improve coordination on child labor and education.
A report on mainstreaming of child labour concerns
in the ministry of education and sport s sector was finalized. The report
review existing education related policies , plans and programme from the
perspective of tackling child labour, assesses challenges and obstacles in
returning out of school children to school and proposes strategies to support
transition back to school based on a review of a number of successful community
based reintegration projects.
The Uganda Police Force (UPF) within the Ministry of
Internal Affairs has a Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU) responsible for
enforcing child labor laws. At lower-level police posts, staff members are
designated as CFPU liaison officers to manage a child-related complaint system
and respond to complaints.
By the end of November 2012, the CFPU had recorded
61 cases of child labor. Eighteen cases are reported to be under investigation
while two are awaiting trial. Research did not find information about the
investigation of the remaining cases.
The Uganda Police employs 450 CFPU
officers countrywide.
Uganda Women’s Efforts to Save Orphans (UWESO) has
prevented over 700 children and 500 withdrawn from child labour and
reintegrated into primary education of which 56% are girls.
What
should be done to reduce child labour
According to the Federation of Ugandan Employers, employers
should desist from employing children but should try to find alternatives for
working children.
“Parents should send children to school especially
now that there is Universal Primary Education (UPE) and teachers can teach the
community about the evils of child labour.”
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