Govt urges mass action to end child labour

Government has appealed to different stakeholders to collaborate in the fight against child labour in Uganda.

Apollo Onzoma, the Assistant Commissioner of Industrial Relations at the Ministry of Gender, denounced increasing cases of child and forced labour in the country’s supply chains.

Speaking to Monitor, Onzoma noted that “although Uganda has ratified international conventions and adopted laws and policies on child labour, enforcement remains weak due to lack of resources, corruption, and limited inspections.”

He further noted that Uganda is committed to Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 which focuses on eradicating child labour by 2025.

“The labour sector is very critical for national development but to achieve this commitment of ending child labour, we need joint action,” Onzoma emphasized.

In 2015, Uganda introduced a law prohibiting child labour which according to Onzoma may include slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labour, children in armed conflict, and children working in illegal activities.

Besides, the 2006 Employment Act sets 16 years as the minimum age of employees working commercially while children aged 14 can also be employed only for light work under the supervision of an adult above 18 years.

Jacqueline Banya Acayo, the National Programme Officer at the International Labour Organization project-the Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains in Africa (ACCEL-Africa project) called for implementation of laws aimed at child protection.

She also echoed need for reforms to the National Action Plan [NAP] for the elimination of child labour (2020/2021 – 2024/2025), which originally sought to create an enabling environment for the prevention, protection, rehabilitation and reduction of the risk of child labour.

 “The law does not sufficiently prohibit commercial sexual exploitation because the offering of a child for prostitution and the use, offering and benefiting from a monetary or in-kind transaction involving the sexual exploitation of a child for the production of pornography and pornographic performances are not criminally prohibited,” she explained.

According to a 2021 Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Dissemination of National Labour Force Survey [2021], 43 percent of persons aged 5 to 17 years were involved in child labour, including household chores- while 40 per cent of child workers aged 5-17 years were involved in labour excluding household chores.

The survey further indicated that 68 percent of the children aged 5 to 17 years were involved in any form of economic activity whereas 47 per cent were in other subsistence work. About 42 per cent were in subsistence agriculture with 11 per cent in other forms of work.