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No Vehicle, Motorcycles for Child Labour Inspection in Thyolo

Our office has no vehicle, motorcycles for inspection - Kaduya Our office has no vehicle, motorcycles for inspection - Kaduya - pic by Beston Luka

Mobility challenges have been described as a major setback hampering efforts to conduct child labor inspection in the district where the vice is alleged to be prevalent in the tea supply chain.

The district's labour officer, Ryson Kaduya says though child labor is not happening in the tea industry, there is evidence that many parents working in the estates are using their children to cover up their domestic responsibilities for instance, selling commodities in the markets during the pay day.

Kaduya has, however, disclosed that apart from low funding, his office has no vehicle and motorcycles to move around to conduct child labor inspections in the estates.

"Parents that are working in the tea estates or smallholder farmers mostly they would instruct their children to sell items where pluckers are working or on market day. We are supposed to conduct child labor inspection and monitoring, but we do not have resources for instance, the district office does not have a vehicle or motorcycles," Kaduya said.

This came out after an open day at Thunga on Friday organised by Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) under a K150 million project Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains in Africa (ACCEL Africa) targeting tea and coffee growing districts of Thyolo, Mulanje, Ntchisi, Mzimba North and Chitipa.

Thyolo district Special Needs Education Coordinator, Alexious Gawani, has also corroborated that child labour is contributing to the dwindling performance of learners in the district.

Meanwhile, to counter the vice, (TUM) Programmes coordinator, Pilirani Kamaliza has told Zodiak Online that they are championing the education component by training teachers on child labour, supporting learners withdrawn from child labour and teen mothers. 

"So today we organised this event for the children themselves to voice out their concerns and injustices they face or their friends are passing through to the stakeholders for them to take immediate action," Kamaliza said.

During the event, best essay writers on child labour from 11 primary school under the SCREAM Anti-Labour clubs were awarded with scholastic materials including the school uniforms and stationery to the vulnerable.

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