Child labour affects 1.6 million children

Some 1.6 million of the 4.7 million children in Tanzania are labourers, according to the country's latest labour force survey. A majority of the children, between five and 17 years worked for more than four hours a day and were not attending school due to poverty, according to the "Integrated Labour Force Survey 2000/01". The Labour Ministry announced on Tuesday the results of the survey that was conducted in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics. "It was found that the work these children were doing was detrimental to schooling, social and mental development," the ministry reported. The Danish embassy, under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), funded the survey that covered more than 11,000 households. Overall, the survey found that one million Tanzanians were unemployed and another two million under-employed. There was a gradual increase in unemployment, an increase that was accompanied by a growth in the number of people who either worked less than the normal 40 hours per week or could not find full-time work. "Under-employment has grown faster in rural than in urban areas," according to the survey, which was conducted to provide comparison, over the decade, with an earlier survey, which was conducted in 1990/91. The ministry reported that the survey also generated new "baseline" information for measuring economic participation of children and child labour. "Generally, [the] unemployment problem is more severe among the youth aged 10 to 34 years that in older age groups because a majority of them enter the labour market for the first time without any work experience or skills," the ministry reported. [For more information on the survey, go to: www.tanzania.go.tz]