• Tanzania
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A rise in child labor is clearly reflected in an increase in primary school dropout in schools close to the mining and quarrying sites from available data it is estimated that the dropout rate in such school ranges between 30 and 40 percent.
Last Friday we invited around 15 youth who came at Youth Training Center at Tanzania Youth Coalition (TYC) for 15min watching documentary about Merelani and 30min for discussion.
The documentary was about child labor in Arusha, Merelani which showed the bad environment of children and youth who work surrounding mining area while Merelani is the only place that produces Tanzanite gemstones.
Mining and in-quarrying is the rapid expanding sector of Tanzania economy .While child labor is not a problem at large scale site under the control of international companies , it is a serious at the growing number of smaller artisan site .
Children in Merelani sites work both on the surface and underground and face all of the health and personal risks generally associated with inherently dangerous work ,including ; inhaling of dust , injury or death from blasting, mine collapse and flooding ,and silicosis .In addition the close proximity of children and adults can lead to violence and sexual abuse hence, these children also face the risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases
Various efforts have been made to combat child labor in various sectors in Tanzania .Most of these efforts have been manifesting themselves in the form of research, sensitization and actual withdraw of children from child labor activities. At the center of the efforts to combat child labor in the country there have been a number of partners involved .They include Government, NGOs ,Employers Association and Trade Unions the private sector and parasitically Organizations.
The people who were invited to watch the film they commented come from different on the causes of child labor in general in Merelani as we watched, the following are the comments which exposed by invited guests as the cause of child labor, being poor, persistent poverty and cutbacks in social services over the past decade have made it difficulty for many parent to meet the basic need of their children , including school fees and materials. Economic hardship has in some cases prompted a breakdown in traditional norms and values that bind the extended family and clan members together and act as social safety net, as family resource become scarcer , many children outside the nuclear family orphans or stepchildren are abandoned or neglected and end up as child laborers as clearly shown in the movie.
luck of family planning, poor income and people don’t know children right. The film Shawn has been prepared by ILO IPEC.