EDITORIAL: Enact stronger pro-children’s rights law to curb child labour

It wouldn’t be wide of the mark to estimate that eight in ten families in Kigali employ domestic labour. Of these, estimating further that five in ten families employ underage persons as house-help wouldn’t be far-fetched either. This is despite numerous efforts that have been put in place to fight child labour in the country, through various initiatives and policies. It’s true that in African culture, enlisting the services of children in domestic labour is not entirely wrong, as the children have to learn the ropes through chores. But what is very wrong is when the type of labour is such that, besides depriving children of their right to education, subjects to burdensome domestic work for long hours. It gets worse when these victims of child labour are not only deprived of their rights but are also subjected to different kinds of violence at the hands of their employers. This kind of labour ultimately erodes the quality of human capital in Rwanda, thus subconsciously affecting socio-economic development of the country as would-be valuable resources are trudged upon in the bud. Surely, for a country that has zero-tolerance to corruption (which is among adults), there has to be enough spiked clubs left in the law chambers to deal a vicious blow to domestic child labour. Child labour laws are statutes regulating the work of minors. They are designed to prevent children from work that interferes with the children’s ability to attend regular school or that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. The Law no. 13/2009 of 27/05/2009 regulating labour in the country condemns child labour but the same law is not specific enough in dealing with the rampant vice that is domestic child labour that manifests in form of house-helps and maids. There is need for authorities to move in and put more emphasis on the issues if the vice is to be curbed. And this wouldn’t be too cumbersome to meet as there are many avenues. The Rwandan community relies a lot on local leaders in policing. This means involving them in regularly inspecting households for the kind of domestic labour employed would go a long way in checking the vice. But first, the law on child labour should put emphasis on the issue of domestic labour that infringes on the rights of minors to basic rights like education.

Opinions

EDITORIAL: Enact stronger pro-children’s rights law to curb child labour