EDITORIAL: WE MUST FIND WAYS TO ERADICATE CHILD LABOUR
Today, June 12, is the highlight of the Week of Action – counting from June 10 to June 17 – focusing on action taken for the 2021 International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.
As the viral Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse years of progress in tackling child labour problems, the World Day against Child Labour this year is the first such World Day since ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s ‘Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No 182/1999),’ adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 17, 1999.
Among other things, the Convention acknowledges that “child labour (which includes slavery, forced labour and trafficking) is largely caused by poverty; and that the long-term solution lies in sustained economic growth leading to social progress – in particular: poverty alleviation and universal education”.
In that regard, ILO member countries which ratified the Convention that entered into force on November 19, 2000 were perforce required “to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency”.
Tanzania ratified the Convention on September 12, 2001. It is one of the 187 world countries which have ratified it so far – the latest being the Kingdom of the Tonga Archipelago, which ratified it on August 4, 2020, to enter into force on August 4, 2021!
Most child labour takes place in the agriculture sector, mainly due to poverty and the lack of decent paying jobs for parents, guardians. Untold numbers of under-age children are still vulnerable to child labour in agriculture, mining-cum-quarrying, domestic work and child trafficking.
Yet, Tanzania has made progress – albeit minimal – in seeking to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, with law enforcement officers successfully prosecuting some cases on child labour issues.
We indeed need to do more in this area, including working on all-inclusive, sustainable socioeconomic development as a cure-all.
KUDOS, DAR YOUTH CUP IDEA
Last week, Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club hosted a football tournament known as the Dar Youth Cup for players seven-to-twelve years old.
Organised by One Plus Sports Agency for the second time since it was inaugurated in 2019 – the 2020 event was cancelled on account of the viral Covid-19 pandemic – the tourney attracted thousands of youths as players and spectators.
Dar Youth Cup was so successful that the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has endorsed it as yet another channel for developing latent football talents in our youth.
If only for this reason, we heartily commend the organisers and the other stakeholder involved in what is clearly a patriotic move in developing Tanzanian soccer.
Successfully organising and otherwise managing such a tournament requires considerable financial and other ‘muscle’ in a country where talented sportsmen and women are a-plenty – but where the appropriate requisite infrastructure is lacking or inadequate. We, therefore, call upon other sports bodies in the country to take a leaf out of the One Plus book on sports development and initiate measures-cum-programmes that would functionally develop sporting talents across Tanzania.
If nothing else, this would help to squarely put the country on the regional, continental and global sports map – doing so in the best interests of the country and its people.
