Rwanda : Rwanda to address child labor
A new policy and a strategic plan will soon be adopted by the government of Rwanda as a response to the problem of child labor as a response to various reports of child abuse in various communities in the country.
The five year plan, which has already been submitted to the cabinet for approval, will be the first to be formulated and adopted as a policy against child labour, which will also see the involvement of key stakeholder in the implementation process.
The 2008 Rwanda National Child Labour Survey (RNCLS-2008), estimates that 11.2 percent (324,659) of children aged between five and 17, engage in economic activities. Almost half of them [5.3 percent] work full time while 5.9 percent combine going to school with work.
The vast majority of children – 83.6 percent – carry out household chores, with at least 87.9 percent of them in the Northern Province, according to the survey.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) says that child labor is a major phenomenon which needs to be addressed especially in the sub-Saharan Africa and in the case of Rwanda; the vice has been on the rise and has not been addressed in a practical way.
Alexander Twahirwa, an official of the Ministry of Labour and Public Service, says that work on both the policy and the strategic plan has been finalized and approved by the national labour council- who present the plan to the ministers on July 6, before heading to cabinet.
Twahirwa noted that there will be activities to strengthen awareness and to conduct a study to assess the situation of all the children involved in these forms of child labour and send them back to school.
