Children forced to a life of stone crushing

Zambia is grappling with the use of child labour in practices, often illegal, such as stone crushing, quarrying sand and making charcoal. The use of child labour in quarrying takes place almost exclusively in the informal sector, explained Birgitte Poulsen, spokeswoman for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Zambia. "The main activity is stone crushing...[which] involves children of all ages, both boys and girls. Many children end up stone crushing when accompanying their parents or guardians to work". Justine Mukosa, spokesman for the Environmental Council of Zambia, a quasi-government watchdog, noted that children as young as five years were being forced to work. The last ILO child labour survey in Zambia in 1999 showed that more than half a million children aged between five and 17 years had worked in the past 12 months. Almost 90 percent of them had been working in the agricultural sector, while others had been engaged in domestic service, street vending and stone crushing. Besides losing out on education, working children are also exposed to physical hazards such as possible "injuries from heavy tools (not fitted for children), inhaling of dust which leads to silicosis and other illnesses in the longer run and damage to eyes and skin from flying chips of stones," pointed out Poulsen. John Mwaba, aged 13, is among several thousand Zambian children, who have been forced to drop out of school to support their families. Like most stone crushers, Mwaba begins his gruelling 12-hour work schedule at 6 in the morning. The quantity of stones crushed, determines the cost of the merchandise, explained Mwaba. It takes almost a week to crush a 10 mt heap of stones, which fetches about US $60, while a similar quantity of sand could help him earn $50. But often, his merchandise is stolen in the night and he is forced to start all over again. "We go hungry then...we normally sell sand and stones to people constructing houses and other structures," said Mwaba, seemingly stunted by the work load. Mwaba joined his mother Selina, in the stone crushing business three years ago, after his father died in a road accident. "I had to make a choice between school and survival because none of my father’s relatives was willing to share the burden with us", he told IRIN. Between the mother and son, they earn about $70 a month, out of which $50 is spent on rental. Zambia, which is a signatory to several international agreements to eliminate child labour, has drafted a policy document to deal with the problem. Josephine Mapoma, permanent secretary in the ministry of labour, said the government was to review labour laws especially those related to children and has implemented programmes to raise awareness and policies aimed at prevention and reintegration of affected children into society. Besides the impact on children, illegal quarrying and making charcoal from trees felled illegally has also affected the environment. Most people usually flout the Environmental and Pollution Control Act, under which a licence is required to quarry commercially. According to Mukosa of the Environment Council, ineffective implementation of the act and lack of legal clarity had hampered attempts to curb illegal mining and quarrying. "We need to harmonise legislation and identify roles each one of us is supposed to undertake in saving the environment. In essence, the law is very weak to deter illegal quarrying at commercial or individual levels", said Mukosa. "We need to revisit various regulations that cover water, forests and quarrying in general so that people are allowed to quarry in designated areas."