Child labour continues to be a critical problem globally, robbing children of their childhood, rights, education, and future. On June 12, each year, Rwanda joins the international community in observing the International Day against Child Labour.

The day seeks to raise awareness about the issue and bolster efforts to eliminate child labour, worldwide.

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The theme for World Day Against Child Labour 2024 is "Let’s act on our commitments: End Child Labour”, emphasising commitment to promoting the safe and healthy conditions of all children, in particular, those facing the risk of child labour.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, potential, and dignity and is harmful to their physical and mental development.

According to the 2023 Annual Compliance Labour Inspection report by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA), 86 child labour cases were identified. Only 39 of the 86 cases were reported to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB).

Northern Province has the fewest child labor cases, with three cases identified and two reported to the RIB. Of these, two cases involve girls and one involves a boy.

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While Southern Province has 14 cases, with nine involving boys and five involving girls, only one case was reported to the RIB.

Western Province has 22 cases, with eight reported to RIB. Among these, 19 involve boys and three involved girls.

The City of Kigali has 23 cases, with 12 reported to RIB. In Kigali, 15 cases involved boys and eight were girls.

Eastern Province leads with 24 cases, with 16 reported to the RIB.

According to the 2022 Child Labor and Forced Labor Report by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, many children in Rwanda are subjected to various forms of child labour. These include forced domestic work, dangerous tasks in industries, mining sites, carrying heavy loads, and working in farm fields, among others.

Here are the sectors where the problem of child labour is predominant:

Agriculture

According to the report, agriculture holds 78.9 per cent of the 156,522 total working children aged 6-14, making it the sector with most cases of child labour, over 123,495 children in the field.

Evariste Murwanashyaka, the Head of Programs at CLADHO (an umbrella of Human Rights Organizations in Rwanda aimed at defending, protecting, and promoting human rights and social justice) and National Child Rights Observer, said children are primarily employed in rice, tea, and cotton fields, among others.

"In these fields, they are tasked with chasing birds away and participating in the production process, which includes applying fertilisers, carrying heavy loads, planting seeds, plucking tea leaves, and weeding.”

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The report points out that within the agriculture sector, fishing, forestry activities, herding cattle, and looking after pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens, are the major child labour activities.

"In the fishing sector, children are frequently employed to cook for fishermen and are sometimes taken on boats to assist with fishing. Regions with intensive fishing activities also experience higher rates of teen pregnancies, as these children often drop out of school to care for fishermen, contributing to an increase in teenage pregnancies,” said Murwanashyaka.

Murwanashyaka said that children under 16 years are banned from fishing, a rule often disregarded as these children can still be seen at lakes and rivers.

Service sector

The service sector holds 17.9 per cent of 156,522 working children, bringing the total number of children in this sector to 28,017.

According to the report, domestic work is a big player in this sector, followed by street work, including collecting scrap metal, lifting and transporting heavy loads, and vending.

"Many children under 16 are employed in various households as domestic helpers. These children are often overworked and not given adequate time to rest, performing tasks beyond their capacity. Additionally, some are left at home to look after their siblings while their parents go to work, on top of other domestic chores,” said Murwanashyaka.

"Lifting heavy loads is particularly common in production areas like forestry, mining and construction sites, among others, where children are used to transport trees from one place to another. Employers tend to hire children because they can pay them less money.”

Industry sector

The sector accounts for 3.2 per cent of the 156,522 children involved in child labour, totalling 5,008 children.

According to the report, the mining sector, particularly tantalum ore (coltan) and quarrying, leads in child labour, construction is also a significant contributor, where children are used to lay and make bricks and additionally, charcoal production is a player in the industry sector that exploits child labour.

The report also indicates that 89.4 per cent of children (13,993,066) in child labour juggle between work and school, often resulting in school dropouts.

Jean De Dieu Bagirihirwe, an officer at Rwanda Workers Trade Union Confederation (CESTRAR), said they are enhancing the capacity of union representatives in the workplace to identify and report any form of child labour.

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He said: "We conduct joint inspections with district labour inspectors to enforce legal provisions related to the elimination of all forms of child labour. We support the Ministry of Public Service and Labour in annual compliance forums on labour standards to disseminate the provisions of labour law and remind employers of their crucial role in complying with all labour law provisions, especially those related to preventing child labour.”

The 2018 labour law of Rwanda provides a list of prohibited forms of work for children below 18 years of age and outlines penalties related to such work.

According to the law, it is prohibited to subject a child below 18 to physically harmful work such as work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights, or in confined spaces.

Prohibited work also includes tasks involving dangerous machinery, equipment, tools, manual handling or transport of heavy loads, working in environments with damaging temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations, and working long hours, at night, or in confined spaces.