Assessment of child labour in small-scale tobacco farms in Mozambique: Nadège Etienne, May 2006

This baseline study was undertaken to measure the incidence of child labour in small-scale tobacco-growing in various districts of Mozambique and was inspired by the ECLT Foundation’s determination to alleviate the problem.

Purpose and scope of the study

With the goal of eliminating child labour in tobacco-growing around the world, the ECLT Foundation has committed itself to action. Undertaking this research was the first step to determine the nature and magnitude of child labour, the context and factors surrounding the problem, the perceptions of parents and children, and the possible solutions to this problem.

The survey was conducted on small-scale tobacco farms in several districts of Tete and Niassa Provinces. These local study areas are henceforth referred to as Angónia (MLT concessions), Chifunde (former Dimon concession) and Niassa (Standard Commercial concession). The sample areas for field investigations were selected from within these tobacco-growing concessions.

Methodology of the study

Quantitative as well as qualitative data were collected during the months of August to October 2005 during a single round of structured and semi-structured questionnaire-based interviews with tobacco farmers and children on one hand and school teachers on the other hand. Collection of data from tobacco farmers followed a three-stage purposive sample procedure as followed:

• primary sampling unit: tobacco-production zone within the local study area;
• secondary sampling unit: tobacco-grower association within each zone;
• tertiary sampling unit: farmers with children aged 6 to 17 within each association.

The study covered 280 tobacco-farming families (132 in Angónia, 75 in Chifunde and 73 in Niassa) and 141 children from these same households (58 in Angónia, 22 in Chifunde and 61 in Niassa). The field interviewers were selected from the tobacco firms’ leaf technicians. The purposive approach of the study aimed at facilitating their work in such a way that they would perform interviews during their regular visits to the tobacco growers. Therefore, this study was not intended to provide general child labour key statistics for tobacco-growing in Mozambique as this would have required a different study design and sample methodology. However the assumption of randomness was made to calculate the point estimates as well as confidence intervals for comparison. Generally large confidence intervals were due to relative small sample size and provided limited statistical differences. Nonetheless, the field observations served for interpreting the trends in the child labour situation in the overall zone, and in each one of the local study areas.

General findings

Incidence of child labour

In view of the findings of the survey, it can be summarized that 80% of the tobacco-growing households had their children working on the tobacco farms. This represents 68% of the children aged 6 to 14 years old and 90% of the children aged 15 to 17 years old. On the sample, the bulk (81%) of the 6-17 years old children were younger than 15. The use of child labour on small-scale tobacco farms was mainly composed of children below the age of 15.

Working conditions

More than half of the working children aged 15 to 17 (50.3%) performed all tobacco-related activities during the crop season while the majority of children aged 6 to 14 (74.6%) only occasionally performed some tobacco-related tasks. There was little discrepancy (10%) between the responses of children and those of adults regarding the children’s participation in tobacco-related work on family farms, and the type of activities and tasks done. Eight tobacco-related activities in which children were engaged were identified. The most common activities carried out by the majority of the working children were picking, curing and marketing of tobacco leaves. The assessment of the working environment and conditions revealed that there were various hazards and risks faced by working children. The hazards and risks emanated from the nature of the tasks performed, ranging from simple cuts inflicted by the tools they use to exposure to extreme climatic conditions and to chemicals.

Most of the children aged 6 to 14 working on small-scale tobacco farms were not wage earners as they were considered family aids. However, 40.4% of smallholder tobacco growers gave a wage to working children aged 15 to 17, and to only 18.2% of children aged 6 to 14. The main reasons given by parents for putting their children to work were: “to help/increase the work force” (39%) and “to learn” (23%).

Schooling versus labouring

Concerning schooling, it was found that 80.8% of the children aged 6 to 14 and only 63.2% of children aged 15 to 17 included in the study were attending school. However, it is important to note that the study could not differentiate between school enrolment and attendance. Moreover, all the school-going children were attending only one shift (of a maximum of 5 hours a day). The age against grade (distortion) rate was found to be very high (in average it took 10 years to reach level 5). Dropout was also an important problem and many children were not able to complete the basic education level. Working children were more likely to not go to school (27.2%) than non-working children (14.1%).

Topping the list of reasons given for not sending children to school was the distance from school (40.0%) followed by the failure of meeting cost requirements (20.7%) and early marriage and pregnancy (20%). Indeed, destitution was found to be a major cause for non-schooled children. Unsuccessful tobacco-growing households (those who did not make a benefit or even had a debt with the tobacco companies in 2005) were more likely to have their children aged 6 to 14 out of school than successful farmers (39.6% vs. 17.7%).

Variables affecting child labour incidence and schooling

Overall, three main variables were identified for which child labour might be more frequent, namely: using non-family labour, distance from school to tobacco growers’ residences and tobacco income level and using non-family labour.
Overall, more than half the smallholder tobacco growers hired permanent and/or seasonal adult workers (56.6%). In the absence of non-family labour, tobacco-growing households were found to be more likely:

• to make use of child labour of children aged 15 to 17 (50.5% vs. 39.2%);
• to have their children work all year long (children 6 to 14: 28.3% vs. 23.1%; children 15 to 17: 53.8% vs. 46.8%).

This suggests that children did not perform specialized tasks that adults would not perform, that child and adult labour was interchangeable and there was no particular advantage to assigning the work to children.

Distance from school

The distance of 1.5 km from school to tobacco farmer’s residences was used as a breakdown value to evaluate the impact of accessibility to education on child labour incidence and schooling. It is worth mentioning that only families with school-going children provided the information on the distance from school. The other families could not inform the field investigators. Furthermore, the majority of those families explained that they did not send their children to school because of the distance. Approximately 40% of the respondent families lived at more than 1.5 km from a primary school. Interestingly, this relatively short distance significantly impacted the children’s activities. When living far from a primary school, tobacco-growing households were found more likely:

• to have their children out of school (children 6 to 14: 22.5% at >1.5 km vs. 8.6% at <1.5 km; children 15 to 17: 34.5% at >1.5 km vs. 30.2% at <1.5 km);
• to use child labour (children 6 to 14: 72.1% at >1.5 km vs. 62.6% at <1.5 km; children 15 to 17: 53.6% at >1.5 km vs. 38.4% at <1.5 km);
• to have their children work all year long on the farm (children 6 to 14: 30.7% at > 1.5 km vs. 24.7% at < 1.5 km; children 15 to 17: 64.9% at > 1.5 km vs. 40.6% at < 1.5 km).

Tobacco income level

The majority of the families received an income from the tobacco production in 2004/05. Only 15.3% of the families were unsuccessful. Children (6 to 17 years old) of families whose work in tobacco was not profitable were found more likely:

• to work (73.1) than children of families who received a tobacco income (61.0%);
• to not to go to school (44.3%) than children of families who received a tobacco income (21%).

Differences in child labour by study area, age and gender

Local study area
Angónia might have a greater proportion of tobacco-growing families putting their children to work. Approximately 75% had their children aged 6 to 14 engaged in labouring activities (Chifunde: 61.6%; Niassa: 68.2%). And more than half of them had their children aged 15 to 17 working (50.4%; Chifunde: 44.2%; Niassa: 38.6%). Additionally, more girls were engaged into tobacco-related activities in Angónia than in the two other local study areas (58.7%; Chifunde: 47.1%; Niassa: 45.8%).

While Chifunde was the most productive and profitable area with only 4.7% of unsuccessful farmers (Angónia: 26.5%; Niassa 12.0%), working children were more frequently asked to work all year long than in the two other study areas (20%; Angónia: 9.6%; Niassa: 6.7% for children 6 to 14 and 65.8%; Angónia: 43.5%; Niassa: 26.5 children 15 to 17). In Chifunde, fewer children aged 15 to 17 received a wage (42.1%; Angónia: 59.0%; Niassa: 76.5%) and more children aged 15 to 17 were out of school (63.1%; Angónia 51.1%; Niassa: 32.3%). The children were also asked to perform more domestic tasks.

Niassa had a better access to school and to health services. For this study, only 15.1% families lived further than 1.5 km from a primary school (Angónia: 56.9%; Chifunde: 56.8%). Consequently, it presented the highest proportion of school-going children aged 6 to 14 (85.4%; Angónia: 76.2%; Chifunde: 79.3%). The families lived within a distance of 25 km of a hospital or health post. For this area, the major concern was food security as 67.8% tobacco-growing families were not self-sufficient (Angónia: 18.9%; Chifunde: 6.9%).

Age of the children

• More than two-thirds of the tobacco-growing families (68.7%) put their children aged 6 to 14 to work while 44.1% did so with children aged 15 to 17.
• Approximately 11% of working children aged 6 to 14 performed all tobacco-related activities. For children aged 15 to 17, this percentage was 40.4%.
• Young children were the most affected by the distance from school as far as schooling was concerned.
• Distance from school did not affect as much the schooling of older children; nonetheless it impacted on the number of hours in class.
• The proportions of parents acknowledging child work as the labour force was 11% for the children aged 6 to 14 while it was 20.5% for the children aged 15 to 17.

Gender of the children
Overall, families used more boys (65%) than girls (51%) on small-scale tobacco family farms. However, girls had the further disadvantage that they had to do a lot more domestic work than boys. Therefore, girls’ work should be duly considered as they also endure additional hardships as a result of their society’s view on the role girls should play. Labour on small-scale tobacco farms tends to affect more the schooling of boys than the schooling of girls.

Attitudes towards child labour
The perception of parents was that combining school with work was a more productive way for children to spend their day. In general, they genuinely believed that they were doing the best for their children by putting them to work, claiming it was the children’s’ “duty” to help the family. Children obey out of a sense of obligation to the family. It seemed that a sort of cultural value had been established for children to participate in all family activities in order to gain knowledge and be prepared for their future life. Parents and their children were not at all aware of the hazards that the work involved. Besides the role culture plays in justifying child work on small-scale tobacco-growing, it was clear that some parents also wanted their children to work on the farm because they could save up on hiring non-family workers.

While the parents might be aware of the benefits of schooling, it appeared that they made little effort in encouraging the children to attend school as indicated by school teachers. Limited access to primary school and poverty seemed to aggravate the non-attendance and favour child work.

Conclusions and recommendations

This study did not provide an exhaustive analysis but it gave an initial indication that indeed attention needs to be paid to the issue of child labour in tobacco-growing in Mozambique and that the situation calls for actions to address the problem. These actions could include the expansion and improvement of all aspects of both primary and vocational education, removing and rehabilitating working children together with sensitising the tobacco-growing families about the dangers of child labour. Further solutions would be to alleviate poverty by improving living conditions at the family level so as to meet financial needs and ultimately assist in freeing children from work on family small-scale tobacco farms.