Child Labour: More than 1 million Mozambican children and teenagers in work – report

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Child Labour: More than 1 million Mozambican children and teenagers in work – report

1:51 CAT | 04 Aug 2017

Voa Portgues (File photo)

In Mozambique, more than one million children between the ages of 7 and 17 are in work, according to an Integrated Labour Force Survey report released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Labour, Employment And Social Security.

The report reveals that Mozambican children are exposed to the worst forms of exploitation, including work in freight transport, mining, agriculture, street vending and even prostitution.

In comments made at a meeting to analyze the report, Mozambican Labour, Employment and Social Security Minister Vitória Diogo pointed to poverty as one of the causes of child labour in Mozambique.

“Work becomes worse when it deprives the child of his or her right to be a child, denies him or her education, leisure, protection and participation in everything that concerns the child, subjected to long hours of work and various risks”, Diogo said.

One of the ways for the country to combat or reduce child labour, Diogo said, was to increase family income by creating more jobs.

“Eliminating its main causes is the only way to combat child labour. In our case, this is poverty, and the need to increase sources of family income seems to deserve greater attention” she said.

The minister said that in the last two years 580,000 jobs had been created, of which 145,330 were filled by women.

Source: Lusa