Dar es Salaam (ILO NEWS): Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the ILO launched a national child labour report in Dar es Salaam on July 20, 2016. The report provides statistical information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics of children aged 5–17 years.
Officiating the launch, Hon. Dr. Abdallah Possi, the Deputy Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office, Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and People with Disabilities, highlighted the importance of data in providing information on the fight against child labour. He said,
“…it is sad to note that among 15 mil. Children who are between 5 and 17 years, 4.2 mil. are involved in child labour, equivalent to 28.8% with agriculture, forestry and fishing being the most dominant sectors … they employ 92.1 per cent of the total working children with boys having a larger proportion (94.3 per cent) than girls (89.6 per cent)…”
Dr. Possi noted that despite the fact that child labour rate has declined from 31.1 to 28.8 per cent, the problem still remains to be a challenge in light of the growing population of Tanzania. He further informed that the government is fully committed to eradicate all forms of child labour and calls for support from all stakeholders.
“One of the efforts done by the current phase government is to introduce ‘free education’ to primary and secondary levels so as to make sure that all children attend school and are not subjected or tempted to work at their early ages.” he said.
On his part, the ILO’s Employment Specialist based in Dar es Salaam, Mr. Jealous Chirove said,
“The magnitude of the child labour problem cannot be known without research based statistics … Statistics are needed for the development and evaluation of policies and for assessing progress towards decent work.”
Mr. Chirove further emphasized that ILO promotes that children should be in school to develop their potential for future workforce of the nation with requisite skills as child labour has been shown to hinder children’s development, potentially leading to lifelong physical and psychological damage.
The research which was undertaken during 2014-15 was targeted at capturing in detail the conditions of children in Tanzania, learn more on their rights and what is the way forward in the fight against child labour. Among the areas covered by the report include, school attendance and household chores by children, number of working children, monthly wage/salary earnings, child labour and hazardous child labour, sectors involving child labour and reasons for children engaging in child labour.
Background Information
The 2014 National Child Labour Survey (NCLS) is the third to be conducted in Tanzania, preceded by surveys conducted in 2000/01 and 2006. Before the year 2000, there was hardly statistical data at national level on working children and type of work they were engaged in.\
The ILO’s global estimates of child labour indicate that significant progress is being made. In the period 2000-2012, there had been a decline of over 30 percent in the number of children trapped in child labour from 246 million to 168 million.
