Child labour in the country will significantly go down following  classification of the kind of jobs children can do,  the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion (Migeprof), Dr Jean d’ Arc Mujawamariya yesterday said.

The Minister bases this projection on the recently approved order that determines the list of worst forms of child labour, their nature and institutions that are not allowed to employ children.

"We have a long list of such child labour cases and among many, children should not be involved in digging deep holes for latrines or employed in brick making processes and in industries. Most of these activities expose children to health hazards and this is not acceptable.”

"With a specific list of child labour categories in place, we are confident that this will efficiently decrease the existence of such occurrences in the country,” Mujawamariya said.

The minister also noted that so far, the government has taken a major step in introducing the Nine-Year-Basic -Education (9YBE) programme that will ensure that all Rwandan children go to school, hence reducing the number of children exposed to hard labour.

"This step alone will significantly cut down on the rate of school drop outs. The new cabinet order that sets categories of child abuse will therefore be an added effort to ensure that all children go to school instead of finding work to do,” she added.

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