NGO wants “urgent measures” against child labour in Mozambique

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NGO wants “urgent measures” against child labour in Mozambique

11:57 CAT | 09 Aug 2017

DW (File photo)

Save The Children organisation says that it is necessary to “tackle the causes” of child labour in Mozambique.

More than one million children work in poor conditions in freight transport, mining, agriculture, street vending and even prostitution, according to an Integrated Labour Force Survey (IFTRAB) report of released this month.

“Urgent measures are needed to address this child labour problem,” Save the Children Mozambique’s Hector Motatano says. The number of children subject to forced labour is “quite high”, he says, warning that this can have consequences in the physical and mental development of the individual.

“Attacking the causes”

According to the IFTRAB report, poverty is the main cause of child labour in Mozambique. Without basic conditions of survival, child labour is a necessary complement to the income of poor families. Motatano says that there are children who work voluntarily to boost family income.

“To combat child labour, we have to tackle the causes,” he says. Reducing poverty requires “actions to ensure the economic sustainability of families”.

Combat and Prevent

Motatano suggests business management training for children to help inform them of ways they can contribute to family income, tools to “help these children have self-sustainability,” he says.

Mozambique’s Labour, Employment and Social Security Minister Vitória Diogo said that one of the ways that the country can combat child labour is to increase family income by creating more jobs.

Government Measures

In 2012, DW Africa reported on a study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimating that “more than a million” children between seven and 17 years old were working in Mozambique.

The numbers have not diminished, but Motatano says that “legislation does address those that are the main problems of this phenomenon”.

The Ministry of Employment and Social Security (MITESS) is currently working on a list of the worst forms of child labour,” Motatano said, adding that the government’s action plan aimed to combat child labour, demonstrating “the government’s commitment to the cause”.

Source: Deutsche Welle