adminMatabeleland South province tops the list of child exploiters and about half of the country’s children aged between five and 14 years are child labourers and more than 90 percent of them work for no pay.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) 2014 Labour Force and Child Survey (LFCLS) report, child exploitation is rife in the agriculture, hunting and fishing industries where 96,2 percent of them are employed in economic and non-economic activities.
It said 55 percent of the exploited children were from households in which their guardians earned less than $100 per month.
“About 96,2 percent of children in economic child labour were working in the agriculture, hunting and forestry industries and 2,9 percent in the wholesale and retail trade. A total of 91,2 percent of those in economic child labour were own account workers on communal, resettlement and peri-urban farming,” reads part of the report.
Matabeleland North was at 58, 9 percent, Masvingo 67,49 percent, the Midlands 64,97 percent, Mashonaland West 39,3 percent and Mashonaland East 51,32 percent.
Mashonaland Central and Manicaland were pegged at 64,99 and 57,27 percent respectively.
According to Zimstat, child labour results in school drop-outs where 33,3 percent had left school for work while 62,8 percent were attending school with four percent having never been to school. 2,7 percent of those between the ages of 12 to 17 years were already married.
The survey was conducted on children between the ages of 5 and 14 years as those above 15 and below 18 are sometimes regarded as ready for work. – The Chronicle.
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