THE government through the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children has been doing its best to safeguard children’s rights.

THE government through the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children has been doing its best to safeguard children’s rights.

However, worst forms of child labour and violence against children witnessed especially in mining sites mean that more efforts are still needed to address the problem.

Indeed, collective efforts under the umbrella of public-private partnership initiative is the best approach to enhance protection of the children.

Recent reports say that a total of 12,187 children aged between 8 and 16 years have been withdrawn from hazardous labour in Geita mines and Nyag’hwale districts in Geita region since 2012.

Majority of them were assisted to return to school and are currently performing very well in class. The anti-child labour project spearheaded by Plan International Tanzania made this possible.

The support of district authorities also proved extremely useful for the protection of the vulnerable children previously subjected in the donkeywork.

The worst forms of child labour deprived hundreds of children of their basic rights and protection. Lucky enough, social researchers have outlined factors behind the worst forms of child labour.

These include broken marriage, leaving devastated children with no other option apart from hardships. Poverty caused by improvident parents/guardians is yet another factor in addition to the quest for quick money among the children themselves.

Inconsiderate employers (owners of small-scale mines) for example, prefer hiring children rather than the adults to achieve effortless control. The deep dark narrow pits at the small-scale mining sites are meant to prevent the adult from getting in. The pits are for the children.

This is absurd. We strongly oppose any condition that transforms children into being bread earners for the families at such a tender age.

Interviewed victims (children salvaged from Geita mines) complained about squalid work conditions, as they persistently inhaled dust and eventually developed permanent coughing and chest pain.

Regrettably, for many years eradication of household poverty has erroneously been considered a huge enterprise that required large sums of money from the donor community.

But the truth of the matter is that, minimal guidance in poultry or gardening for example, can improve family income. For example, there are families not earning even 500,000/- annually whereby one hundred chicken each selling at 8,000/- can bring 800,000/- within four months. This is equivalent to 2.4m/- annually.

We call upon all parties concerned with social welfare to work out common strategies in collaboration with different stakeholders to help the community get rid of the wrong attitude.

Personal initiative is the driving force towards economic emancipation. In this way we can spare our children from the worst forms of child labour.