Rising child labour cases worry Goodall

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe yesterday said he is worried that Malawi continues to register a rise in the number of children found doing hazardous work.

Gondwe said this in Lilongwe during the launch of the National Child Labour Survey report.

The report shows that 38 percent of children in the country between the ages of five and 17 are engaged in child labour while 60 percent of the children are in hazardous work.

For decades, Malawi has been blamed for doing little to end child labour, especially in tobacco estates where the practice has often denied children their rights and privileges to education and health.

“I expect that the launch of the report today will help us scale up the fight against child labour,” said Gondwe.

In her remarks, the National Statistical Office (NSO) commissioner of statistics Mercy Kanyuka said the objective of the report was to provide up-to-date information on child labour in the country.

Said Kanyuka:  “The survey report  will serve as  a reference  for protection of children’s rights  and provide  a reliable and comprehensive  basis for  determining priorities  for National  Action Plan  for the  elimination of child labour “

On his part, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) director for Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, Alexio Musindo said the organisation will help  push  Malawi government  so that the malpractice should completely eliminated.

“Child labour has been ILO major concern as it reflects  bad on government’s efforts,” he said. n