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Fighting child molestation in Tanzania
2007-04-29 09:25:43
By Mwaka Nakasula
Child molestation and harassment is among the worst forms of human rights abuses that deprive them of survival, development and protection.
Tanzania is signatory to various United Nations conventions that advocate children`s rights in critical areas such as Education and Health.
There are various forms of child molestation and harassment that bera a negative impact on the physical and social development of children.
These include child labour and sexual harassment. The government as well as various Non Governmental Organisations have spearheaded efforts to eradicate the menace so as to provide Tanzanian children with the right to a better future.
The Minister for Community, Developnment, Children and Gender, Sophia Simba, says the government would not relent in the war against child labour, harassment and other social evils afflicting children.
``We as a ministry will not sit and watch while children are raped and deprived of their human dignity,`` says Simba.
Prevailing economic and social conditions in developing countries such as Tanzania have a big role to play in the attainment of survival and development rights of children.
Most children involved in child labour related activities are those that come from economically unstable homes.
In order to make ends meet parents are forced to send their children, very often as young as 10 years to indulge in child labour related activities contrary to the Employment and Labour Relations Act which stipulates a minimum age of 14 years.
A big percentage of these children are employed as house maids earning an average of 15,000/- per month.
These young girls mainly come from rural parts of Tanzania and are employed with the full consent of their parents or guardians. Some work under difficult conditions that at times mount to slavery.
Zawadi Mwipopo, 11, is employed as a house girl in Sinza residential area, a middle class suburb in Dar es Salaam.
She reveals that she came to Dar es Salaam one year ago from Tukuyu, Mbeya region, with the consent of her parents.
Her employer promised to remit 50 percent of her salary of 20,000 shillings on a quarterly basis to her parents.
As much as she would have loved to continue going to school the latter could not have been possible because her parents could not even afford to buy her basic school necessities, such as shoes and books.
``I have only gone as far as the first grade but given an opportunity I would like to further my education,`` she says
She has no knowledge of her basic and fundamental human rights.
``Education is not a right but a privilege for children who come from well to do homes. If that had not been the case then young girls like myself would not have been found in such desperate position,`` she argues.
Zawadi has been given full responsibility of running the daily household chores of the home, failure to which she is subjected to physical and physiological harassment.
``I have to wake up very early in the morning to prepare breakfast for my employers. Then after they have left I have to do the daily household chores which include cleaning the house, washing and drawing water,`` she reveals.
Sexual molestation in some cases is the order of the day but due to the extreme sensitivity of the matter victims remain timid.
Such instances expose young children to the risk of contracting the deadly HIV Aids virus thereby denying them the right to a better future.
The torment that young victims of such circumstances go through is one that is too pitiful to behold requiring concerted efforts by not only government but by the civil society as a whole.
Executive Director of the Tanzania Gender and Network Program Mary Rusimbi says the government needs to put in place a mechanism that would make the country a better place to live in even for children coming from poor backgrounds.
Mary Thomas, a resident of Ubongo says men or women who succeed in sexually molesting young children are simply outcasts in society.
``Such men simply deserve to be castrated because even if they were to undergo punishment such as imprisonment they would still continue to commit such atrocities.
This is not a problem that should be left to the government alone but rather community at large should play a bigger role to ensure that Tanzanian society rids itself of such evil vices,`` she says.
She says that the sad part of the story is that a large number of these young victims are too terrified to speak out for fear of stigmatisation.
`Some young house maids are sexually molested by their male employers therefore the victims find it difficult to report such incidences to their spouses,`` laments Mary.
A relatively large percentage of children are also involved in what might be termed as the worst forms of child labour. They work under harzardous conditions in places such as individually owned mines and stone quarries.
Those working in mines are forced to dig trenches that are as deep as 20 metres in their quest to the mineral resource.
The stingy and exploitative owners of such mines do not provide safety equipment while paying their `employee` meagre salaries.
The International Labour organisation has put in place a National Time Bound Program that aims at reducing child labour in 11 districts. These include Arusha, Illala, Iramba, Mufindi, Kinonodoni, Kondoa, Simanjiro, Arumeru, Uramb and Temeke.
The implementation of this program has seen a reduction of 15,429 children out of 57,531 who were in the worst forms of child labour in 2003.
The program covers the period between the year 2006 to 2008 for which the United States department for labour has availed USD4,871,097.
The second phase covers five additional districts, which include Mwanza, Lindi, Kilwa, Micheweni, Pemba, North Unjuga in Zanzibar.
Tanzania is among the first 3 countries which include Nepal and El Salvador to implement this program.
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