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| © Blossom Project |
CHILDREN AT THE TOBACCO ESTATES
Tobacco is a major cash crop. It is farmed in over 100
countries. Its growing is very intensive and requires 33 million
workers at farm level. As in other agricultural sectors, child labour
is prevalent, particularly in the poorer areas. Often the whole
family is involved in the cultivation and harvesting process. Children
provide "adjustable labour" at peak periods and can contribute to
a third of the labour input.
Though still scarce, information on child labour in tobacco growing
has already been documented in some reports, such as the Fafo,
(Institute for Labour and Social Research) Report on Child Labour
in the Tobacco Growing Sector in Africa, 2000 (PDF 542K)
, Extracts:
Previous studies indicate that the use of child
labour on the tobacco estates is in fact continuous and part of
the overall labour market. Children are usually not employed directly
on the estates but work as part of the tenant family. When a tenant
is employed on the estate he or she is employed as the head of the
household and responsible for fulfilling the quota required by the
estate owner. This quota cannot be grown unless the entire family
of the tenant is involved in the growing of tobacco. Children are
then directly involved in all aspects of tobacco growing.
The following facts about child labour have been
extracted from previous studies:
- Seventy-eight percent of children between 10 and 14 years
work either full-time or part-time with their parents at the
estates
- A study in the Thyolo district, in Malawi, found that children
between 6 and 14 years account for 8 per cent of all regularly
working household members in male-headed households and 29 per
cent in female-headed households
- 20 per cent of all children under 15 years were reported by
their parents as working full-time and a further 21 per cent
were working part-time
- For children 10 to 14 years, the proportion working full-time
and part-time were 46 and 32 per cent respectively
- Children under 10 years of age were also found working alongside
their parents as full-time workers in almost all the tasks of
tobacco cultivation
- About 43 per cent of the estates have children as direct labourers,
and 46 per cent as casual labourers
- The proportion of owners and managers providing wage rates
for child employees was 8 per cent in the case of children working
as direct labourers and 15 per cent where they were employed
as casual labourers
- There seems to be no discrimination between male and female
children as far as child labour is concerned
Another Fafo, Institute for Labour and Social
Research study
on Tanzania
(PDF 160 KB) reports the following activities undertaken
by children:
A study in Tanzania argued that tobacco-growing
employers expect the working children to do the following activities
in tobacco plantations:
- Clearing tobacco and other crop plantations
- Making bricks
- Domestic works
- Building tobacco drying sheds
- Preparing tobacco nurseries
- Sowing tobacco seedlings
- Watering tobacco seedlings
- Transplanting tobacco seedlings and tilling tobacco ridges
- Fertilising tobacco plants
- Weeding tobacco and other crops
- Cutting poles and logs of firewood
- Carrying poles and logs of firewood from forests
- Plucking tobacco leaves
- Hanging tobacco leaves on poles in tobacco dryingsheds
- Smoking tobacco leaves
- Hanging tobacco leaves from poles in dryingsheds
- Plaiting tobacco leaves
- Grading tobacco leaves
- Tying tobacco leaves in bundles
- Selling tobacco
- Burning tobacco stems, and
- Harvesting other crops
There are three broad hazards facing children working
in the tobacco growing sector:
- Consequences of dangerous working environments including;
injuries, sickness, burns, humiliation, snake bites, malnutrition
and death;
- Consequences of excessive physical strain including;
loss of reasoning capacity and being overworked for longer hours;
- Consequences of the act of the working child to migrate
his / her own home includes the loss of one's progressive
ethical moral values and permanent loss of education.
To contribute to ending child labour in tobacco
growing involves the commitment and cooperation of all stakeholders
from farm workers to governments, including the corporate sector
and the trade unions.
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