2002 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Tanzania

Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

The Government of Tanzania became a member of ILO-IPEC in 1994. Since 1995, ILO-IPEC has implemented 40 action programs in Tanzania to address child labor.³⁴⁴³ A number of government ministries have established child labor units, including the Ministry of Labor, Youth Development and Sports; the Bureau of Statistics; and the Department of Information Services.³⁴⁴⁴ ILO-IPEC has worked with the Ministry of Labor, Youth Development and Sports in providing training on child labor issues for labor inspectors to support them in reporting on the incidence of hazardous forms of child labor.³⁴⁴⁵ The Ministry of Community Development, Women Affairs and Children, with support from ILO-IPEC, has provided training to community development workers to enhance their capacity to include child labor in district-level community development plans.³⁴⁴⁶ The Ministry of Community Development, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and various municipal authorities have also collaborated in an ILO-IPEC supported project run by the Kiota Women Health and Development Organization that focuses on prevention, withdrawal and rehabilitation of girls engaged in prostitution.³⁴⁴⁷

In 2000, Tanzania joined four other countries participating in an ILO-IPEC program, funded by USDOL, to remove children from exploitative work in commercial agriculture.³⁴⁴⁸ The government in 2000 also conducted a child labor survey with technical assistance from ILO-IPEC's SIMPOC.³⁴⁴⁹ In June 2001, the Government of Tanzania announced that it would initiate an ILOIPEC Time-Bound Program, a comprehensive, national level project to eliminate the worst forms of child labor over a defined period. The first phase of this project, with funding from USDOL, aims to eliminate child labor in the commercial sex sector, mining, abusive forms of domestic work, and commercial agriculture in 11 districts by 2010.³⁴⁵⁰ In September 2002, the Tanzanian Ministry of Labor, Youth Development and Sports and the Ministry of Education and Culture signed a letter of agreement with USDOL expressing support for the Time-Bound Program, noting the U.S. Government's funding of grants to ILO-IPEC and the Education Development Center in Tanzania in support of this initiative.³⁴⁵¹ The Government of Tanzania has included elimination of child labor as an objective of its draft Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP) and has included preparation of a child labor action plan in its PRSP workplan.³⁴⁵²

Tanzania's Basic Education Master Plan (BEMP) aims to achieve universal access to basic education for children over the age of 7, and ensure that at least 80 percent of children complete primary education and are able to read and write by the age of 15.³⁴⁵³ Under the BEMP, the government abolished school fees to promote children's enrollment in primary school.³⁴⁵⁴ With support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Culture has launched a three-year program to help reintegrate children who have dropped out of the system into schools.³⁴⁵⁵ The Ministry of Education has launched a Community Education Fund with World Bank support to improve the school infrastructure.³⁴⁵⁶ Through the Primary Education Development Program, the World Bank is supporting Government of Tanzania efforts to improve education quality, enhance access to schooling and increase school retention at the primary level.³⁴⁵⁷ In January 2002, the government introduced a grant to support the building and improvement of classrooms that amounts to the provision of USD 400 per school per year on average.³⁴⁵⁸ In 1997, Tanzania joined ILO-IPEC's Action Against Child Labor through the Education and Training Project, which has mobilized teachers, educators and their organizations, and the general public to launch campaigns against child labor at the local and national levels.³⁴⁵⁹

With funding from USAID, the Government of Tanzania in 1998 launched the Social Action Trust Fund (SATF), which provides grants to community groups and NGOs that work with victims of HIV/AIDS and their families. SATF grants have provided assistance to 13,525 AIDS orphans in 14 regions, supporting primary and secondary education for children who were unable to pay school fees and uniform and book costs because of the loss of their parents to AIDS.³⁴⁶⁰ HIV/AIDS has led to many children being orphaned and left vulnerable to child labor because of the need to provide for themselves.³⁴⁶¹

Under its PRSP, Tanzania established an Education Fund to support children from poor families.³⁴⁶² Tanzania has also identified education as a strategy for combating poverty under its Development Vision 2025 and its Poverty Eradication Strategy 2015. The country's poverty eradication agenda includes ensuring all children the right to basic quality education.³⁴⁶³

Incidence and Nature of Child Labor

In 2001, a child labor survey conducted by the Tanzania Ministry of Labor, Youth Development and Sports, in cooperation with ILO-IPEC, estimated that 4.1 million out of an estimated 10.2 million children ages 5 to 14 years in Tanzania were not in school, and that nearly 4 million of these children were working.³⁴⁶⁴ Approximately 27 percent of working children are ages 5 to 9, and 44 percent are ages 10 to 14.³⁴⁶⁵ In rural areas an estimated 34 percent of children work compared to in 11 percent of children who work in urban areas.³⁴⁶⁶

Children work on commercial tea,³⁴⁶⁷ coffee,³⁴⁶⁸ sugar cane,³⁴⁶⁹ sisal,³⁴⁷⁰ cloves,³⁴⁷¹ and tobacco farms,³⁴⁷² and in the production of corn, green algae (seaweed), pyrethrum, rubber, and wheat.³⁴⁷³ In mining regions, children work in surface and underground mines.³⁴⁷⁴ Children ages 7 to 13 years work in mine pits an average of 4 to 5 hours per day, while children ages 14 to 18 years work on average 7 hours per day. Children working in bars and restaurants near the mines work even longer hours, with children ages 10 to 13 years working an average of 14 hours per day.³⁴⁷⁵ In the informal sector, children are engaged in scavenging, fishing and fish processing, informal quarrying, and work in informal garages.³⁴⁷⁶ Children also work in domestic service.³⁴⁷⁷ Others work as barmaids, street vendors, car washers, shoe shiners, carpenters, and auto repair mechanics.³⁴⁷⁸ Girls as young as 9 years old reportedly engage in prostitution.³⁴⁷⁹ Children from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have also been identified to be engaged in prostitution in Tanzania.³⁴⁸⁰

According to reports, children have been trafficked to work in mines, commercial agriculture and domestic service.³⁴⁸¹ Children are trafficked from rural areas for use in the commercial sex sector. Such children are often lured with false promises of work in urban areas as house girls, bar maids, and in hair salons.³⁴⁸² Children in the country's large refugee population have been particularly vulnerable to being trafficked to work on commercial farms.³⁴⁸³ Some have also been taken from refugee camps to be trained as child soldiers.³⁴⁸⁴ Children, some as young as 7 years old, are trafficked from Tanzania to South Africa. Some girls who are trafficked to South Africa allegedly face conditions of debt bondage.³⁴⁸⁵

Education in Tanzania is compulsory for seven years, until children reach the age of 15, but families must pay for enrollment fees, books and uniforms.³⁴⁸⁶ In 1998, the gross primary enrollment rate was 64.8 percent, and the net primary enrollment rate was 48.1 percent.³⁴⁸⁷ In 1996, Tanzania's gross primary attendance rate was 78.1 percent and its primary net attendance rate was 51.3 percent.³⁴⁸⁸ Forty-eight percent of working children attend school.³⁴⁸⁹

Child Labor Laws and Enforcement

The Employment Ordinance of 1956 establishes 15 years as the minimum age for employment and prohibits children from working near machinery, or engaging in underground work. The law does not restrict children from working in agriculture.³⁴⁹⁰ Under the Employment Ordinance, employers are obliged to maintain registers listing the age of workers, working conditions, the nature of employment, and commencement and termination dates.³⁴⁹¹ The Penal Code prohibits procuring a female under the age of 21 for prostitution.³⁴⁹² Tanzania's Constitution prohibits forced or compulsory labor, but does not specifically refer to forced labor by children.³⁴⁹³ Trafficking is not specifically prohibited by law.³⁴⁹⁴

Several government agencies have jurisdiction over areas related to child labor, but primary responsibility for enforcing the country's child labor laws rests with the Ministry of Labor,Youth Development and Sports. A Child Labor Unit within the Ministry of Labor serves as a liaison between the various government ministries and stakeholders. It is responsible for administering child labor-related projects, conducting the child labor component of the labor inspector training, and gathering and disseminating data on child labor.³⁴⁹⁵ At the community level, Child Labor Monitoring Committees have been established in areas with a high frequency of child labor.³⁴⁹⁶ The committees are reported to be effective in their initial efforts to raise awareness, withdraw and rehabilitate children from child labor, protect working children, and provide support to families.³⁴⁹⁷

The Government of Tanzania ratified ILO Convention 138 on December 16, 1998, and ILO Convention 182 on September 12, 2001.³⁴⁹⁸

3443 ILO-IPEC, Tanzania: Focusing on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, Geneva, 2001, 13, 14.

3444 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2001: Tanzania, Washington, D.C., March 4, 2002, 687-90, Section 6d [cited December 18, 2002]; available from http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/af/ 8407.htm.

3445 ILO-IPEC, Tanzania: Focusing on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 14.

3446 Ibid.

3447 Kiwohede, Annual Activity Report for the Year 1999-2000, Kiota Women Health and Development Organisation, Dar es Salaam, 2000, 8-9. See also Casmir Ndambalilo, "Kiwohede Gets Cash Boost to Help Girls," Sunday Observer, [cited November 15, 2002]; available from http://www.ippmedia.com/observer/2002/11/10/observer2.asp.

3448 ILO-IPEC, Prevention, Withdrawal and Rehabilitation of Children Engaged in Hazardous Work in the Commercial Agricultural Sector in Africa, program document, November 1, 2000.

3449 ILO-IPEC, SIMPOC Countries, [online] [cited February 26, 2002]; available from http://www.ilo.org/public/ english/standards/ipec/simpoc/countries.htm.

3450 ILO-IPEC, Supporting the Time-Bound Program on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Tanzania, project document, Geneva, 2001, vii and 27. See President of the United Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, Address at the Special High-level Session on the Launch of the Time Bound Programme on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Republic of El Salvador, the Kingdom of Nepal and the United Republic of Tanzania, June 12, 2001, [cited December 18, 2002]; available from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ ilc/ilc89/a-mkapa.htm.

3451 Ministry of Labor, Letter of Agreement Between the U.S. Department of Labor and the Tanzania Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Labor, Youth Development, and Sports Regarding the USDOL Child Labor and Education Initiative, September 11, 2002. U.S. Embassy – Dar es Salaam, U.S. Labour Department Funds Education Program to Combat Child Labor in Tanzania, September 10, 2002. See U.S. Embassy – Dar es Salaam, unclassified telegram no. 0617, October 23, 2002.

3452 United Republic of Tanzania, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Progress Report 2000/2001, August 14, 2001, 4.

3453 UNESCO, Education for All 2000 Assessment: Country Reports – Tanzania, prepared by Ministry of Education and Culture, pursuant to UN General Assembly Resolution 52/84, 1999, 2.2 [cited December 18, 2002]; available from http://www2.unesco.org/wef/countryreports/tanzania/contents.html.

3454 United Republic of Tanzania, letter to USDOL official, October 4, 2002.

3455 Christine Minja-Trupin and Michael Trupin, Time Bound Programme on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Tanzania: Summary Report of the National Round Table-Prepared for the International Labour Organisation/ International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour, Local Perspective Ltd., Dar es Salaam, May 2001, 16.

3456 Ibid.

3457 World Bank, Tanzania: Primary Education Development Program, October 10, 2001, [cited November 15, 2002]; available from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/ 0,,contentMDK:20027012~menuPK:34470~pagePK:40651~piPK:40653~theSitePK:4607,00.html.

3458 United Republic of Tanzania, letter, October 4, 2002.

3459 ILO-IPEC, Action Against the Worst Forms of Child Labour through Education and Training, outline paper, Geneva, January 1999, 6-7. See also ILO-IPEC, Tanzania: Focusing on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 19.

3460 USAID, Social Action Trust Fund Provides Credit for Entrepreneurs and Education for Orphans, [cited November 15, 2002]; available from http://www.usaid.gov/regions/afr/success_stories/tanzania.html.

3461 ILO-IPEC, Tanzania: Focusing on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 12.

3462 United Republic of Tanzania, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 4, 43.

3463 UNESCO, EFA Country Report: Tanzania.

3464 This 4 million figure is based on a definition that includes housekeeping and economic activities by children. ILOIPEC, Supporting the Time-Bound Program, 3. Statistics on the number of working children refer to "usual" work activities for children who worked during the 12-month reference period. Forty percent of children surveyed reported to have worked in the past seven days. See also Minja-Trupin and Trupin, Time Bound Programme on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Tanzania: Summary Report, 6.

3465 Statistics on the number of working children refer to "current" work activities for children who worked during the last week of the reference period. The number of children who were currently working was 3.4 million. Statistics measuring "usual" work activities during the 12-month reference period by age or location are unavailable. See Time-Bound Program: Tanzania [CD-ROM].

3466 Ibid.

3467 M. J. Gonza and P. Moshi, Tanzania Children Working in Commercial Agriculture-Tea : A Rapid Assessment, ILOIPEC, Geneva, January 2002.

3468 George S. Nchahaga, Children Working in Commercial Agriculture- Coffee: A Rapid Assessment, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, 2002, 29-32.

3469 ILO-IPEC, Investigating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Tanzania: Rapid Assessments in the Informal Sector, Mining, Child Prostitution and Commercial Agriculture (Draft Report), Dar es Salaam, 2000, 4.

3470 A plant that yields a stiff fiber used for cordage and rope.

3471 ILO-IPEC, Tanzania: Focusing on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 15.

3472 A. Masudi, A. Ishumi, F. Mbeo, and W. Sambo, Tanzania Child Labour in Commercial Agriculture-Tobacco: A Rapid Assessment, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, November 2001.

3473 U.S. Department of Labor, By the Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor (Volume 5), Washington, D.C., 1998, 165. For information on child labor in commercial agriculture in Zanzibar, see Angela K. Ishengoma, Report on the Situation of Child Labor on Plantations in Zanzibar, IPEC and the Social Welfare Institute, Dar es Salaam, 1995.

3474 J. A. Mwami, A.J. Sanga, and J. Nyoni, Tanzania Children Labour in Mining: A Rapid Assessment, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, January 2002, 37-39. Situation Analysis Report on Hazardous Child Labor in the Three Sectors: Plantations and Agriculture, Domestic and Allied Workers Union, and Tanzania Mining and Construction Workers Union, Federation of Free Trade Unions, Dar es Salaam, 1997, xi.

3475 Mwami, Sanga, and Nyoni, Tanzania Children Labour in Mining, 37-39.

3476 C. Kadonya, M. Madihi, and S. Mtwana, Tanzania Child Labour in the Informal Sector: A Rapid Assessment, ILOIPEC, Geneva, January 2001, 33-48. Sachiko Nishioka, ILO-IPEC Street Children Intervention and Preventive Strategies Against the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A Case Study of United Republic of Tanzania, ILO, Dar es Salaam, 1999, 7. See also U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 684-87, Section 5. See also Protection Project, "Tanzania," in Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, March 2002, 533-34 [cited December 18, 2002]; available from http://www.protectionproject.org.

3477 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 687-90, Section 6d.

3478 U.S. Department of Labor, By the Sweat and Toil of Children, 165.

3479 E. Kamala, E. Lusinde, J. Millinga, J. Mwaitula, M.J. Gonza, M.G. Juma, and H.A. Khamis, Tanzania Children in Prostitution: A Rapid Assessment, ILO-IPEC, Geneva, November 2001, 16. Kiwohede, Annual Activity Report, 8. See also Alakok Mayombo, "Rights: Tanzania- Children Drawn into Sex Trade," in Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation Amherst, Mass.: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 1999. Tanzania Media Women's Association, A Comprehensive Report on Child Sex Workers in Tanzania, December, 1997, Dar es Salaam, 1997. Elizabeth Moshi and Ichikaeli Maro, Sex Workers Among Young Girls in Singida, Tanzania Media Women's Association, Dar es Salaam.

3480 Kamala, Lusinde, Millinga, Mwaitula, Gonza, Juma, and Khamis, Tanzania Children in Prostitution, 20.³⁴⁸¹ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 687-90, Section 6f. U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report – 2002: Tanzania, Washington, D.C., June 5, 2002, 100 [cited December 18, 2002]; available from http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2002/10682.htm. See also Protection Project, "Tanzania," 533-34.

3482 Kamala, Lusinde, Millinga, Mwaitula, Gonza, Juma, and Khamis, Tanzania Children in Prostitution, 20. Protection Project, "Tanzania," 533-34.

3483 U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report: Tanzania, 100.

3484 Ibid.

3485 Protection Project, "Tanzania," 533-34. U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report: Tanzania, 100.

3486 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 684-87, Section 5.

3487 World Bank, World Development Indicators 2002 [CD-ROM], Washington, D.C., 2002.

3488 USAID, GED 2000: Global Education Database [CD-ROM], 2000. See also Government of Tanzania Ministry of Education and Culture, Basic Statistics in Education 1995-1999: National Data, Dar es Salaam, June 2000.

3489 ILO-IPEC, Supporting the Time-Bound Program.

3490 The Employment Ordinance states that any employer found to be in violation of child labor laws is subject to a fine of 2,000 to 4,000 shillings (USD 2.15 to 4.30) and/or 3 to 6 months of imprisonment. See Law Reform Commission of Tanzania, Report of the Commission on the Law Relating to Children in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, 1997, 131-32, Cap. 366, Sections 77, 85. See also United Republic of Tanzania, letter, October 4, 2002.

3491 Law Reform Commission of Tanzania, Report of the Commission, 131, Cap. 366, Section 85.

3492 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 684-87, Section 5. See also Protection Project, "Tanzania," 533-34.

3493 Protection Project, "Tanzania." U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 687-90, Section 6c.

3494 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports – 2001: Tanzania, 687-90, Section 6f.

3495 National Roundtable Discussion on the Time-Bound Program on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, Time-Bound Program on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Tanzania: Summary of the Institutional and Policy Study, April 23-25, 2001, 15-16.

3496 ILO-IPEC, Supporting the Time-Bound Program, 18.

3497 Ibid., 16.

3498 ILO, Ratifications by Country, in ILOLEX, [database online] [cited February 26, 2002]; available from http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/newratframeE.htm.