Malawi Commemorates World Day Against Child Labour

Malawians are commemorating the World Day Against Child Labour today, July 9, which was officially commemorated on 12 June worldwide, with the theme, “Behind Closed Doors: Domestic Child Labour.”

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) under its special programme dubbed International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), established the World Day in 2002 to highlight global efforts against child labour as a means of raising the visibility of the problem, particularly its worst forms.

ILO/IPEC Country Director, Michael Mwasiskakata, said in interview the main activities will take place in Mchinji, one of the impact areas in which the UN organisation has been implementing its “Malawi Commercial Agriculture Programme” for the past two years.

Mwasikakata defined child domestic labourers are all children in domestic service who are under the legal minimum working age, as well as those above the legal minimum age but under the age of 18 who are in an exploitative situation. Most of these working children are girls.

Although the ILO/IPEC has so far only concentrated on child labour in the commercial agriculture, Mwasikakata stressed there was need to give more attention to domestic child labour since it was becoming increasingly rampant in the country.

“When we talk of domestic child labour, we do not have evidence in terms of statistics since it is difficult to inspect or monitor the nature of work done in households. However, an anecdotal experience shows that domestic labour comes second from agriculture in terms of paid employment,” he said.

He however added that domestic child labour may become extremely serious because as the number of households increases, so is the number of children working as domestic child servants.

“This is why we need to give serious attention to domestic child labour in Malawi. ILO/IPEC has given a lot of attention to the problem worldwide; but has not done so in Malawi yet. We hope we should as well be running similar programmes on domestic child labour here in future,” he said.

The activities that are expected to take place today include child labour displays and demonstrations by various participating organisations such as the Social Welfare Department, Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, Church Action in Relief and Development (CARD), Association for Elimination of Child Labour (AECL) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). Head of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, Paul Gondwe, confirmed in a separate interview that the Labour Minister, Lilian Patel, will officially welcome the ILO delegates from Lusaka, Zambia, who have come to grace the event.

There is also going to be drama, poems and choir performed by the Mchinji Mission, Tikoliwe, Mkanda and Pewani youth groups, HillSide Academy, Bua Community Day Secondary School, and Lumbadzi youth groups. Traditional dances will include Gwanyasa and Ingoma.

The event is expected to culminate into football and netball matches between Mchinji Secondary School and Bua Community Day Secondary School where the "Red Card to Child Labour" campaign shall revive the sweet memories of the African Cup of Nations 2002, when the ILO/IPEC teamed up with the Football Federation to launch a global campaign against child labour. The Red Card campaign aims to use particularly the world's most popular sport, football, to mobilise public opinion against child labour.

CARD project officer, Misoze Katunga, whose organisation works as the ILO/IPEC implementing partner for its Commercial Agriculture Programme in Mchinji, said the event would help underline their efforts in eliminating child labour in the district.

He said through the programme, they had so far withdrawn more than 6, 500 children working as child labourers in commercial estates since last year, which he described as “very successful.”

Overall, there are 1.4 million child labourers in Malawi, according to the Malawi 2002 Child Labour Survey. 52.6 percent of them (aged 5-17) are in agriculture, more than 200,000 children aged 1-17 are in hazardous labour in agriculture, whereas 43.2 percent are in the community, social and personal service sectors.

The report further reveals that 64.9 percent of the child labourers work 11-25 hours a week, 8 percent 26-36 hours and 3 percent over 49 hours. 26.5 percent of child labourers never attended school; whereas 53 percent did not complete junior primary school.

The Malawi Employment ACT of 2000 prohibits hiring children under the age of 14 and prohibits hiring anyone under the age of 18 in work that is “harmful to health, safety, education, morals or development.”

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