adminVeronica Gwaze CCOSA Student
Life is an uphill climb, faced with daily challenges. For some, it is characterised by a three meter manually dug pit and heavy 20 litre barrels of water fetched from a distant dam to mould bricks. One can easily tell how gruesome and tiresome the moulding industry is from a point of a mud-coated early teenager carrying a moulding crate manoeuvring and staggering like a drunkard.
“If I get money, I would love to go to school,” sadly relates mud coated Takunda Munoyera (not his real name) as he conducted the norm of his daily life, brick moulding. “That is a song I always sing in my heart . . . really wish to be in class one day,” tears gather in his eyes.
Takunda is a 15-year-old boy who was forced by circumstances beyond his control to drop out of school. His family was brought to exposed to poverty by the death of his father who was the sole bread winner. Him, his 11-year-old little brother and mother were left exposed to the ruthlessness of poverty.
The motive and target behind his working have forced Takunda not to observe his working days nor hours. Working from dawn to dusk from Sunday to Sunday as Taku does defines child labour in its true meaning.
Child labour is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity and that is harmful to physical and mental development. Zimbabwean law defines children as persons under 18 and prohibits any form of employment for children under the age of 13 while those between 13-15 can work only as attachees.
Earning $1 for a 1000 bricks, Takunda is helping his mother, a veggies vendor to pay his little brother ‘s school fees. The children ‘s basic right to education has been denied to him as he already plays the role of the father in the household.
Tawanda a brick moulder in Chitungwiza says he is paid $25 for a 1 000 bricks he moulds and his boss in turn sells at $50 per 1 000. This means Takunda loses $72 per day when both target for 3 000 bricks a day.
Child labour in the contemporary Zimbabwe is on the rise, most fuelled by the current economic challenges that has seen most families failing to sustain on a single income forcing children to seek employment at a tender age.
‘There can be no keener revelation of a society ‘s soul than the way in which it treats its children’ Nelson Mandela.
Child labour is most rampant in labour intensive cumbersome sectors mostly the farms as revealed by the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ). GAPWUZ says children are being taken by parents to work hand in hand with them in order to complete tasks given to them by the farmer faster. Girls are mostly taken into being a maid at a tender age where they become vulnerable to child and even sexual abuse. This is a situation most propelled by the fact that most parents can no longer afford to take children to school because of little wages or retrenchment which saw thousands of people losing their jobs recently.
GAPWUZ is a democratic labour movement that operates in Zimbabwe and is most aimed at monitoring child labour within its jurisdiction. According to this movement, child labour has taken a new toll in farms and it is best evidenced when you see children selling veggies at road sides usually along the highways.
In a microscopic view of the rural areas, child labour is at peak and painfully it happens while the parents or guardians are subconscious. In the name of moulding a strong generation children are made to work in the fields early in the morning before going to school. They then either skip school or walk long distance to school were they cannot even concentrate as they are hungry and tired from both working in the fields and the walk to the distant school.
Research proves that child labour does not only affect a child physically but also psychologically. Children who are psychologically unwell can be noticed by secluding themselves, a notable fear that they constantly show, exactly what Takunda portrayed as he narrated his story. He constantly peeped over his shoulder as if he was running away from someone. The innocent eyes resembling those of a child, stricken with fear of the unexpected and the unknown. Such children have a very low self-esteem that they do not feel comfortable in the company of others. Their participation even in school is low and they usually yield low marks.
In May 2015, the Government passed an Amendment Bill that allowed children under the age of 14 years to work in family enterprises provided it does not interfere with their education.
This was in belief that it would help to strike a balance between the need for education and the reality of their socio-economic conditions.
To curb this generational curse, parents or guardians should abhor bad practices that deprive children of their right to education.
Parents should be well enlightened or taught about this child labour calamity. In addition, the Government should intervene in helping children under the york of child labour.
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