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Tag: Child Labour

  • Cross River rejects NBS ranking on child labour

    Cross River rejects NBS ranking on child labour

    Cross River on Saturday dismissed as untrue a survey report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that it had the highest incidence of child labour in the country.

    The NBS had stated in the report that of the 24.6 million children in child labour in Nigeria, Cross River recorded the highest incidence of 67.4 per cent, followed by Yobe with 62.6 per cent.

    In the survey entitled: “Nigeria Child Labour Survey 2022’’, the NBS rated Lagos State has having the lowest incidence of 8.9 per cent.

    The NBS described child labour as any work that robbed children less than 18 years of age of their childhood, potential, and dignity or had deleterious impact on their physical and mental development.

    It stated that its survey showed that children between the ages of five years and 17 years were engaged in economic activities that amounted to child labour in Nigeria.

    Dismissing the report, Cross River’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Erasmus Ekpang disclosed in Calabar that the figures released did not represent the true position in Cross River.

    He said the figure for Cross River was not tenable since government had put measures in place since assumption of office in May 2023 to discourage child labour and to uplift vulnerable segments of the population.

    He explained that the measures put in place centred on health, education, agriculture and other empowerment initiatives.

    Ekpang stressed that government had also put in place programmes that empowered women economically and discouraged them from sending their children and wards out as child labourers.

    “Women are empowered to take care of themselves and their families. Youths are also not left out of these policies and programmes.

    “The initiatives are mostly in the areas of agriculture and small-scale enterprises.

    “We also initiated programmes like school feeding to retain every child in school,’’ he stated.

    Ekpang advised the NBS to revisit its 2022 figures and make amends.

    The NBS report also stated that more than 14 million of affected children were engaged in hazardous work.

    The survey also showed that child labour was considerably higher in the rural areas, with 17.5 million or 44.8 per cent of children involved.

    In the urban areas, however, only 7.1 million children, or 30 per cent were involved in child labour.

    Hazardous work is also more frequent in the rural areas according to the NBS.

    “More than 10.5 million children or 26.8 per cent of those of them in the rural areas are in hazardous work.

    “In urban areas, only about four million children or 16.3 per cent are in hazardous work,’’ it stated.

    The report also indicated that the Northwest geopolitical zone had the highest of 6,407,102 children engaged in labour, followed by the Northeast with 4,466,808; North Central (3,884,576); South-South (3,682,773); Southwest (3,227,559) and Southeast (3,004,669).

  • Viral video of nine-year-old “maid” tortured to death sparks outrage

    Viral video of nine-year-old “maid” tortured to death sparks outrage

    The tragic death of a nine-year-old maid, allegedly subjected to severe abuse and violence by her employer, has sparked a campaign against child labour.

    A viral video purportedly captured the girl identified as Fatima Fariro, writhing in pain after an assault, prompting widespread calls for justice with the hashtag #JusticeforFatima trending on social media platforms.

    The alleged murder occurred in Ranipur, near the city of Khairpur in Sindh province, Pakistan, after Fatima was sent by her impoverished parents to work as a maid for Pir Asad Shah Jilani, the primary suspect in the case.

    Jilani, however, denied the accusations, insisting that he had been providing medical treatment to the girl at home for a stomach ailment and that her death occurred during treatment.

    Although some reports indicated Fatima’s age as 10, popular Pakistani actress and child protection activist Nadia Jamil, clarified that she was, in fact, nine years old.

    Jamil also shared a statement from Fatima’s mother, alleging that Jilani’s father had coerced her into claiming her daughter had an illness at the time of her death, despite signs of abuse on the girl’s body.

    The actress said Fatima’s mother also accused Jilani’s wife of burning Fatima’s back with a hot iron and forcibly pulling out the child’s hair, leaving bald patches on her head.

    In the video believed to be from a CCTV camera in one of Mr. Jilani’s rooms which has widely circulated online, Fatima’s body was covered in torture marks as she lay motionless on the ground.

    A woman, suspected as Jilani’s wife stood beside her, while another woman, possibly another household maid, entered and checked on Fatima, reacting in shock upon realizing the girl had died.

    Senior Superintendent of Police in Khairpur Mir Rohal Khoso, confirmed the arrest of the suspect and plans for a post-mortem and exhumation.

    Khoso stressed that the Sindh police remained committed to combating child abuse and protecting human rights.

    Meanwhile, the incident has triggered demands for justice and an end to child labour, which Fatima’s mother echoed during her TV appearance, confirming her daughter had indeed shown signs of torture.

    The Sindhi Association of North America joined the call for an investigation into Fatima’s death which it described as a case of child labour.

    Despite Pakistan’s ratification of international child labour conventions and the prohibition of employment for those below 14 to 15 years of age, child labour continues to persist in various forms, with reports of exploitation and torture frequently emerging in the media.

    According to reports, Fatima was one of approximately 100 teenage girls who were serving as “maids” for the family of the Pir of Ranipur, in a situation akin to captivity.

    Earlier this month, police in the capital, Islamabad, arrested a judge’s wife on allegations of severely torturing her teenage maid, who had to be hospitalized for severe injuries, as reported by local media outlets.

  • Niger State gov’t to confront child, forced Labour

    Niger State gov’t to confront child, forced Labour

    The Niger State Government has reiterated its commitment to protecting the dignity of children through elimination of child and forced labour across the state.

    The Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Mineral Resources, Alhaji Abubakar Idris stated this during a meeting with the officials of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and a team of Non Governmental Organizatios (NGOs) at the Ministry’s headquarters in Minna recently.

    The Permanent Secretary who received the team discussed on the forthcoming flag-off programme of Child Labour Elimination beneficiaries in Shiroro and Suleja Local Government Areas.

    He said the exposure of children to forced labour and other dangerous activities was a call for concern and totally unacceptable emphasising that the Government under the leadership of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello was poised to supporting programmes aimed at curbing the challenge.

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    He directed the team to forward an Executive Summary of the intervention programmes adding that it was important for the development partners to articulate a defined role the government would play in the oncoming programmes with a view to adding to the number of Beneficiaries from the starter packs.

    Earlier, the leader of the team and Controller Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Niger State office,Inuwa Yakubu said they were at Ministry to intimate the Permanent Secretary on the ongoing intervention programmes on Elimination of Child Labour and to seek the state government participation in the forthcoming empowerment of trainees as well as explore areas of further collaboration.

    He disclosed that the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Federal Ministry of Labour was set to flag-off distribution of starter packs to trainees in various skills including tailoring, hairdressing, barbing among others in the state.

    The Controller further informed the Permanent Secretary that ILO programme interventions in the state started in 2019 and will end in April, 2023 and therefore, called on the state to take ownership of the Programme to ensure its sustainability.

    Representative of Raise Foundation, Mr. Okama Moses said Accelerating action for the elimination of child labour in supply chains in Africa (ACCEL AFRICA) is a Dutch’s funded project adding that the programme started with the distribution of Back-to-School kits,where 500 children were presented with customized school bags, books among others and enrolled in schools under Shiroro and Suleja LGAs.

    Mr. Moses disclosed that arrangement has been concluded to further empower 500 parents and youth on the 14th and 15th September and therefore, stressed the need to take ownership of the project and ensure its sustainability in the state.

    It will be recalled that, the ACCEL Africa Project is focused on the elimination of all forms of child labour and forced labour from Nigeria particularly Niger State, from its Artisanal Gold Mining, where the practice is most prevalent.

  • Cadbury under attack over child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana

    Cadbury under attack over child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana

    Cadbury has been accused of employing child labour after an investigation obtained footage of children working with machetes on cocoa farms in its supply chain.

     

    Children as young as 10 have allegedly been found working in Ghana to harvest cocoa pods to supply Mondelēz International, which owns Cadbury. Campaigners say the farmers are being paid less than £2 a day and can’t afford to hire adult workers.

     

    Ayn Riggs, founder of Slave Free Chocolate, which campaigns against child labour in cocoa farms, said: “It’s horrifying to see these children using these long machetes, which are sometimes half their height. Chocolate companies promised to clean this up over 20 years ago. They knew they were profiting from child labour and have shirked their promises.”

     

    The Cadbury revelations come as this weekend millions of pounds will be spent on chocolate treats for Easter.

     

    More than £300m is spent on Easter eggs and novelties each year, including more than 80m boxed eggs. The chocolate market is worth £5.6bn in the UK, according to the market research firm Mintel. It includes about 330m Cadbury Creme eggs which are eaten every year.

     

    Mondelēz, which made global profits last year of more than £3.3bn, has a sustainability programme, Cocoa Life. Its logo is marked on its products, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, and its website states: “No amount of child labour in the cocoa supply chain should be acceptable.”

     

    Under the Cocoa Life programme, Mondelēz had, by the end of 2020, mapped about 167,800 cocoa farms that supply its businesses in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

     

    On one of the farms alleged to be supplying Mondelēz, two children with machetes were filmed by the documentary team weeding the plantations. Children were also filmed using sharp knives to open cocoa pods and swinging long sticks with blades tied to them to harvest the pods from the cocoa trees. None of the children were wearing protective clothing. The daughter of one farmer, claimed to be supplying Mondelēz, said she had sliced her foot open while using a long machete.

     

    On one of the smallholdings, a niece of the farmer said she thought she was going to her uncle’s farm to help with childcare but claims she was being forced to work long hours on the farm and not allowed to go to school. When asked why she did not speak out, she said she was “afraid”.

     

    Under Ghanaian law, it is illegal for children under 13 to work on cocoa farms. There is also a ban on anyone under 18 being involved in hazardous labour.

     

    Ghana is the world’s second biggest cocoa producer after Côte d’Ivoire, and the crop, along with gold, is one of its most valuable exports. A cocoa farmer will typically receive 7p from a milk chocolate bar costing £1 in the UK, and 11p from a dark chocolate bar.

     

    Children as young as 10 are allegedly being forced to work long hours on cocoa farms. Photograph: Channel 4
    It means many live in extreme poverty while facing rising costs from the impacts of climate change, because of unpredictable weather patterns and changes in crop-threatening pests and diseases. Ninety percent of the world’s cocoa beans are harvested on small, family farms with less than two hectares of land.

     

    In 2001, a cocoa industry agreement agreed to eliminate child labour. It was backed by the World Cocoa Foundation, a trade group whose members include the world’s biggest cocoa and chocolate companies, Nestlé, Mars Wrigley and Mondelēz.

     

    But the protocol’s targets were postponed and adjusted in 2005 and 2008. A revised target in 2010, to reduce the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector in west Africa by 70% by 2020, has been missed. Campaigners say child labour is still endemic in the chocolate industry.

     

    A study by the social research group NORC at the University of Chicago in 2020 found 1.56 million children were involved in the cocoa industry in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

     

    The report found prevalence rate of child labor in cocoa production among agricultural households in cocoa growing areas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana increased between 2008/09 and 2018/19. There was a 62 percent increase in cocoa production in the two countries during this period.

     

    Joanna Ewart-James, executive director of Freedom United, an international organisation campaigning against child labour in the cocoa supply chain, said: “Child slavery and child labour have plagued the industry in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – which produce 60% of the world’s cocoa – for decades. Cocoa farmers are not earning an income that enables them to recruit the labour they need.”

     

    On Friday, Freedom United will publish a scorecard rating global chocolate firms on their labour and environmental practices. The campaign group says Mondelēz has invested in community initiatives to combat child labour but, along with other leading companies, needs to pay farmers more money for its cocoa.

     

    Slave Free Chocolate compiles a list of chocolate companies that use ethically grown chocolate.

    Martin Short, president of the World Cocoa Foundation, said: “Dealing with child labour abuses as a standalone issue will never work until we deal with the root cause of child labour, which is farmer poverty.”

     

    Cadbury, one of Britain’s most famous companies, was controversially taken over by the US food firm Kraft Foods in January 2010. The American food giant changed its name to Mondelēz International in October 2012.

     

    Mondelēz considers a wide range of measures are required to combat child labour. The company has been involved in research which shows that increasing the price of cocoa will not on its own lift many farmers out of poverty, because they are farming on small amounts of land.

     

    A Mondelēz International spokesperson said: “We’re deeply concerned by the incidents documented in the Dispatches programme. We explicitly prohibit child labour in our operations and have been working relentlessly to take a stand against this, making significant efforts through our Cocoa Life programme to improve the protection of children in the communities where we source cocoa, including in Ghana.

     

    “The welfare of the children and families featured is our primary concern and we commit to investigating further so we can provide any support needed. As part of our Cocoa Life programme, we have child labour monitoring and remediation systems in place in Ghana, which means community members and NGO partners are trained to provide assistance to vulnerable children, and once identified, we can help to address any cases of child labour.” The company said it had requested additional information from the Dispatches team so it could investigate.”

  • [TNG Special Report] 2021 Day of the African Child: Child-bride syndrome, child labour, other stark reality surrounding African Children disturbing – Activists

    [TNG Special Report] 2021 Day of the African Child: Child-bride syndrome, child labour, other stark reality surrounding African Children disturbing – Activists

    June 16 every year, the world marks the International Day of the African Child. The day is commemorated with tributes to some South African black students who where killed in Soweto during a protest for their right to quality education in 1976.

    Since 1991 when the day was first marked by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU), the drive towards better healthy life for an average African child has been in the front burner with very disturbing statistics showing the vulnerability of African children who are exposed to child labour, child marriage, destitution, abuse, rape and marginalisation.

    The theme for the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2021 is “30 years after the adoption of the Charter: Accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for children”. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Committee), established under Articles 32 and 33 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Charter) selected this theme for the commemoration of the DAC in 2021. The theme seeks to appraise the effort so far by the African Union and other international organizations in ensuring children’s welfare.

    TheNewsGuru.com. TNG can confirm that more work needs to be done as Africa still has the largest number of child labourers. 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labour and 31.5 million in hazardous work. In Africa, agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of child labour statistics and for 61.4 million children in absolute terms. A record the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided adjudged as disturbing.

    Here in Nigeria, Africa’s largest population, children especially in the northern part of the country have over the years become endangered species; child destitution and begging, child labour and child marriage account for the high number of out of school children in the region. The girl-child is the most affected, forcefully married from as young as age eleven (11) to thirteen (13).

    “You will think they are young, but to us they are very mature, we are forced to believe they are mature once we see them doing some things only adult are doing, it is then we send them to marriage”. Idris Musa, a resident of Bargi village in Makarfi local government of Kaduna State told TNG. Inevitable signs of puberty to Musa and his likes are signs a young girl is ripe for marriage.

    Other instances of abuse of children’s right can be seen in the child labour practice enshrined by the Almajiri system. The Almajiri system is an Islamic practice in Northern Nigeria where children are sent out of their parents house to Islamic clerics to learn the teachings of the Quran, but in the absence of food and even shelter, the children are forced to become street beggers and become exploited through unskilled labour. These children who are often called ‘Almajirai’ often litter the streets and at the latter stage in their lives when they grow without education become thugs who would make life in the society unbearable. Their female counterparts forced to marry at premature ages end up with diseases such as Vascular Virginia Fistula (VVF) and often thrown out of their marriage due to their incompatibility with their forced spouses.

    All these still exist in Nigeria despite the enactment of the Child Right Act 2003, a policy frame work that currently exist to provide healthy lives and protect Nigerian children. This according to some stakeholders is worrisome.

    For Osigwe Momoh, an Abuja based lawyer, the Nigerian justice system must look in to the issues of Nigerian children for posterity sake.

    “What I love most about the child right act is the fact that the child has been defined as anyone below the age of eighteen, so if you are bellow eighteen, you are a child in this country and every right facility a child should have you ought to have it if you are below eighteen.” He said.

    He added that “it’s quite sad that even at this instance we have some painful understanding where people still think that children should marry especially owing to some traditional or religious purposes, so while it’s in one hand we say this is a child you have to take care of, some other people in another hand feel that it’s their right to religion and so a twelve year old girl should marry, I think this is offensive.”

    In her submission, Any Rotimi a civil right activist in Abuja said; “It is important that we continue to advocate and engage every stakeholder; it starts from the community level which includes the family, the traditional, religious setting, and others.

    “We also have the responsibility of holding the system accountable, to ensure that those children are able to live the life they desire” she added.

  • TNG INVESTIGATION: How Almajiri system is abetting Child Labour in Northern Nigeria

    TNG INVESTIGATION: How Almajiri system is abetting Child Labour in Northern Nigeria

    Emmanuel Bagudu, Abuja

    Despite efforts by the previous administration to tame the excesses of the Almajiri system in Nigeria, the Almajiri child has not been saved yet from the exploitation of the society. In a typical northern Nigerian society, access to cheap and fast labour is gotten from the Almajirai (plural). This piece explores how the Almajiri system aides and abet child Labour especially in Northern Nigeria where it is fondly practice.

    Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practised in northern Nigeria. Almajiri derives from an Arabic word, rendered “al-Muhajirun” in English transliteration, meaning a person who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge. This, however, is not the case in present-day as a good number of Almajiri children are seen daily on Major Streets across Nigeria begging for Alms, doing menial jobs and sleeping under bridges.

    The Almajiri System was introduced in the north during the pre-colonial era by the Sokoto and Borno caliphates to spread the Quranic literacy, during those times the students stayed with their parents for moral upbringing. All schools then were in close proximity to the immediate environment of the students.

    The schools were funded by the community, parents, Zakkah, Sadaqqah and sometimes through the farm output of the students. This system was later balkanized by the British colonialists who during the invasion of the northern Nigerian killed most the emirs and deposed the remnants while introducing Boko (western education), consequent of which resulted to the fall of Almajiri system.

    The teachers and students had no financial support so they turned into begging and menial jobs. While the few northerners embraced boko the majority stuck to the status quo. This dichotomy created a semi-feudal system in which the ones who embraced Boko became the later day’s elites and lords while the majority who maintained the status quo became the serfs and continued to wallow in abject poverty, thus adopting begging as a way of life.

    This begging way of life has now become a norm in northern Nigeria such that parents have now dedicated their children to beg also called “bara” in the Hausa language.

    Idris a 7-year-old boy and 5 of his friends at the Maraba Pedestrian bridge in Neighboring Nasarawa State are beggars and they make no bones about it. This is because becoming an Almajiri is an age-long accepted tradition since before they where bone. With sweet renditions of Hausa songs, Idris and his friends enter house to house begging for alms or food which they usually get either for free or in some cases in exchange for menial jobs such as Sweeping, weeding or washing plates.

    It is common to see restaurant owners going around looking for Almajiri children to help them in their chores. “Sir abeg you help me see any Almajiri boy nearby” Mrs Becky a restaurant owner in New Nyanya , Nasarawa State asked a neighbour in pidgin English; meaning “did you see an Almajiri boy close by?”. Mrs Becky wants help with chores which she will end up paying with the overnight left over of food. She is not the only woman involved in this. “….I am helping them if not where will they see food” Mrs Becky brags. This explains how vulnerable the Almajiri children are. At the moment the high birth rates in northern Nigeria is currently the cause of the increase in the number of Almajiri children in the country. They are so many in the north that commercial drivers and truck delivery vehicles employ their cheap services which will involve travelling with them. Some of the Almajiri children in the course of the journey usually abscond to neighbouring urban centres like the state capitals where the begging trade is more lucrative. At this point they become destitute. Close scrutiny of Pedestrian bridges in the Gwarimpa and Kubwa towns in Abuja says it all. Almost all the so-called Almajiri beggers on those bridges came from neighbouring Kaduna, Nasarawa or Niger states. They keep increasing in numbers. For example, A report by the National Council for the Welfare of the Destitute (NCWD) approximated the number of current Almajiri children to 7 million in Nigeria.

    Nigeria’s immediate ex-president Goodluck Jonathan tried to take the children off the street by introducing the Almajiri education in 2010 but assembling the over 5 million Almajiri children back to school then was a huge task that wasn’t achieved.

    This non-adherence to giving the Millions of Almajiri children formal education accounts also is the cause of the increasing poverty level in the north. For instance, according to statistics in Kano and Zamfara, three out of every four persons and over 91% of the population live in extreme poverty. In fact, studies indicate that poverty has doubled in more than 84% in northern communities since 1980.

    It is worthy of note that the Almajiri System is “Child Labour” and must be attended to with sustainable steps that could end it for good.

    Groups, Cleric, Federal Government of Nigeria Abhors Almajiri Child Labour.

    The Almajiri child labour is obviously not sinking well with Islamic faithful worldwide. “Almajiri begging or child labour is illegal in Islam. Nigerians must know that Islam abhors begging and child labour, they should not call begging an Almajiri act,” Imam Abubakar Manzo in Nassarawa State said in utter bitterness while being interviewed by this reporter.

    The Nigerian Government is now giving it a second thought “….And, therefore, it is very important to proscribe certain groups ultimately running around under the guise of maybe getting some kind of education that is not really formal and then begin to cause a lot of problems for society.” ….“The group I spoke about on illiteracy is the Almajiri….”….“Ultimately, the government will have to proscribe this Almajiri phenomenon because we cannot continue to have street urchins, children roaming around, only for them, in a couple of years, or decades, to become a problem to society.” National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno said in an event at the presidency months back. Although the Presidency came out to say it is not banning the Almajiri Education previously introduced by Ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, the Almajiri children remain a nuisance to the Nigerian Society

    Two young men from the north named Muhammed Sabo Kiana from Nasarawa state and Umar Galadima from Borno State have established what they called in Hausa “Gidauniyar Kare Hakkin Almajirai” meaning; Foundation for the protection of Almajiri Rights. They said they have dedicated their time annually to fight for the protection of the Almajiri child’s right. They said they are currently mobilizing Youths to fight for children who are sent for begging errands under the guise of Almajiri. According to them, having born and brought up in the north under the tenets and tutelage of Islam, Almajiri child labour has no place in Islam. It’s an embarrassment the two young men and their contemporaries seem not ready to live with and so is to the elite world.

  • 50 percent Nigerian children engage in child labour – NBS

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) says about 50.8 per cent of Nigerian children, ages between five and 17, are involved in child labour.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NBS conducted the survey in conjunction with other partners, including the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

    NAN reports that child labour entails work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and deprives them of opportunities for schooling and development.

    Mrs Maureen Zubie-Okolo, UNICEF’s Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, in an interview with NAN on Tuesday in Abuja, said the figure was alarming and worrisome in spite of all legislation.

    Analysing the survey, Zubie-Okolo identified North-Central region as having the highest burden of child labour of 56.8 per cent followed by North-West accounting for 55.1 per cent.

    South- South has 48.7 per cent; South-East 46.6 per cent, and South-West 38 per cent, respectively.

    She also frowned at the number of children working in hazardous conditions in the country and identified North Central as accounting for the highest number with 49.6 per cent.

    The UNICEF official also identified North West as accounting 41.9 per cent of children working in hard conditions, followed by South-South 37.9 per cent; South- East 36.1 per cent; North-East 34.1 per cent and South-East 25.4 per cent in that order.

    Zubie-Okolo identified the major causes of child labour as poverty, rapid urbanisation, breakdown in extended family affiliations, rate of high school drop-out and lack of enforcement of legal instruments meant to protect children.

    She identified one of the most common practices of child labour as the use of children as child domestics.

    Zubie-Okolo, who described the 2017 MIC survey as fifth in the series, noted that it helped to espouse the country’s progress and lapses in key areas of development, among others.

    According to her, it provides opportunity for strengthening national statistical capacity, by providing technical guidance on data gathering.

    She emphasised that the survey also provided statistics to complement and assess the quality of data from recent national surveys such as National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) and Nigerian General Household Panel Survey (NGHPS) conducted by the National Population Commission (NPopC).

    “The high level of diverse and tedious jobs that children execute in dangerous circumstances is particularly worrying.

    “These jobs include being street vendors, beggars, car washers or watchers and shoe shiners.

    “ Others work as apprentice mechanics, hairdressers and bus conductors, while a large number work as domestic servants and farm hands.

    “Traditionally, children have worked with their families, but today children are forced to work for their own and their family’s survival.

    “The money earned by child family members has become a significant part of poor families’ income.

    “These children who work suffer from fatigue, irregular attendance at school, lack of comprehension and motivation, improper socialisation, exposure to risk of sexual abuse, high likelihood of being involved in crime.

    “These children which are mostly young girls, should be in school but instead, they are in the market hawking food items because their families need the extra income,” she said.

    According to her, there is urgent need for government to enforce laws on child labour in order to stem the tide and further reduce the burden.

  • Senate will partner ILO to combat child labour – Saraki assures

    Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has pledged the commitment of the 8th Senate to work with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to eliminate all forms of Child Labour in the country.

    Saraki, who spoke in Abuja, when the Country Director of the ILO, Dennis Zulu, visited him as part of activities to mark the World Day Against Child Labour, reassured the ILO Director that the “Senate assigns particular importance to the fight against child labor.”

    In a statement by his Special Assistant on Print Media, Chuks Okocha, the Senate President commended the United Nations (UN) for its fight against child labour and said “we all must do more to eliminate the use of children for forced labour.”

    He noted that the overall lack of advocacy limited greater understanding about the issue. For this reason, he said he hosted a Children’s Day roundtable discussion with States Assembly on the Child’s Rights Act of 2003 to “raise awareness about our obligation to defend the rights of children.”

    “As you are aware, some States are yet to domesticate it, and we made some commitment to them. Hoping that the States that are left, will work hard to see that before the next Children’s Day, they will see that this Act is domesticated in their States.

    “It is important to promote universal basic education, to support the National Child Labor Policy and the National Action Plan the ILO developed with the Federal Government,” he said.

    He further reiterated the importance of working with the government to support these policies through legislation.

    “I have a strong record in support of the Child’s Rights Act, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) and child labor rights,” said Saraki. “The Senate intends to work closely with ILO as a partner to combat child labor. By the next World Day Against Child Labour, we should see more progress in this area.”

    Saraki added: “This 8th Senate is very committed to issues of Child’s Rights, violence against children and Child labour. I hope that we will be able to work closely together in these areas and I will like you to leave here with the assurances that we are your partners.”

    Earlier, the leader of the delegation who is also the Country Director of ILO in Nigeria, Dennis Zulu, lamented that Nigeria “does not have recent statistics on the prevalence of child labor.” The last survey from 2003 estimated that more than 15 million children are engaged in economic activities and about 6.1 million classified as child laborers.

    He appealed to the Senate President to help in ensuring the passage of a harmonised legislation against child labour in Nigeria.

    The ILO Country Director lamented that there are inconsistencies between the minimum age requirement for children to work in Nigeria when compared with the National Agency for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Act from the Labour Act.

    He also complained about weak enforcement of legislation on child labour in the country and poor coordination among the different Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government dealing with the issues of children.

    The ILO representative therefore appealed to the Senate President to help facilitate a programme to coordinate and ease child labour issues in Nigeria as it is done in other African countries.