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Employ children…leave them to starve?
2006-11-11 08:45:35
By Cathrine Nderingo
In as much as we would like to put an end to child labour, the fact remains that the practice is still rampant, not only in Tanzania, but the world over.
Why is that so? One might ask. The truth of the matter is that HIV/Aids and divorce in some cases, have led to this problem.
Looking at HIV/Aids, one might discover that there are some instances where the disease has claimed the lives of both parents leaving the children to take care of themselves.
Narita, a woman in her late sixties is taking care of eight grandchildren after losing her two sons and their wives to HIV/Aids.
She had to foster the grandchildren but the problem is that she herself is too old to take care of herself without even talking about the additional burden that she has to carry.
”They had to stop going to school for I could not afford to pay school fees for all of them. I had to plead with certain people in my neighbourhood who are well of to at least employ the bigger children so that they could earn money to help me look after the young ones.
This is how i have been managing and i am at least glad that we can now afford meals because of these kind people.
It is better for them to have enough food to eat than go to school and die of starvation,” said the old woman showing obvious signs of stress from looking after this large number of children on their own.
”It was also hard for children in school since most of the pupils and some teachers too showed clear signs of distaste after learning that their parents had died of Aids.
They had to live with a lot of cruel and degrading comments. It was just too much for them,” added the aged woman.
Looking at this situation, one realises that these children are obviously being subjected to child labour.
Their situation is really kind of tricky because it is their guardian who actually went to plead with the employer so that they could get something to survive on.
If the employer had refused to take them in, the result is that the poor children and their grandmother might have suffered a lot or even died of starvation.
Under such situations there is no way, the guardian can go to the police to report child labour since she is the one who actually negotiated the contract.
The law clearly states that child labour is illegal and does not even allow parents or guardians to negotiate contracts for their children who are under age.
That being the case, the employer can be punished by the law for employing a young child in contravention with the law.
Furthermore, the employer cannot state that he/she employed the child at the behest of its parents, neither can he state that he did not know that employing a minor child is contravention of the law.
Also, the employer cannot argue that it was morally right for him/her to employ the child after its parents had all succumbed to the Hiv/Aids disease.
It is imperative to note that the employer will not escape the wrath of the law by saying that they entered into a designed agreement with the child and that the child was willing to work and was getting remuneration from such employment.
Whilst this is what the law states, on the other hand, reality is different and this makes it difficult to put an end to child labour due to the realities that we are facing not only in Tanzania but the world over.
Fewer people are becoming wealthier, companies are folding and diseases are causing havoc on the face of the earth, one can almost see a situation where children are happy to work, as long as it guarantees that they will earn a wage from which they can sustain a livelihood and remain alive.
The whole situation is paradoxical. In the meantime i leave the question where the child has become the head of the family, and is taking on responsibilities that are well above its age, does it make sense to punish the employer who is providing that child with the employment, which enables the child to excecute its new found role as the breadwinner?
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