United States Department of Labor

Tanzania

Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

The Government of Tanzania became a member of ILO-IPEC in1994.[4185] Since 1995, ILO-IPEC has implemented 40 action programs in Tanzania to addresschild labor.[4186] ILO-IPEC has worked with the Ministry of Labor, YouthDevelopment and Sports in providing training on child labor issues forlabor inspectors to support them in reporting on the incidence of hazardousforms of child labor.[4187] The Ministry of Community Development, Women Affairs and Children, with supportfrom ILO-IPEC, has provided training to community development workers toenhance their capacity to include child labor in district-level communitydevelopment plans.[4188] The Ministry of Community Development, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry ofEducation and Culture, and various municipal authorities have also collaboratedin an ILO-IPEC supported project run by the Kiota Women Health and DevelopmentOrganization that focuses on prevention, withdrawal and rehabilitation of girlsengaged in prostitution.[4189] A number of government ministries have establishedchild labor units, including the Ministry of Labor, Youth Development andSports; the Bureau of Statistics; and the Department of Information Services.[4190]

In 2000, Tanzania joined four other countries participatingin an ILO-IPEC program, funded by USDOL, to remove children from exploitativework in commercial agriculture.[4191] In June 2001, the Government of Tanzania announced that it would initiate anILO-IPEC Time-Bound Program, a comprehensive, national level project toeliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2010, in line with Tanzania’sNational Development Provision 2025 and the country’s poverty eradication strategy. The first phase of this project, with funding from USDOL, aims to combat childlabor in abusive forms of domestic work and in the commercial sex, commercialagriculture and mining sectors in 11 districts.[4192] In September 2002, the Tanzanian Ministry of Labor, Youth Development andSports and the Ministry of Education and Culture signed a letter of agreementwith USDOL expressing support for the Time-Bound Program, noting the U.S.Government’s funding of grants to ILO-IPEC and the Education Development Centerin Tanzania in support of this initiative.[4193]

The Government of Tanzania has included elimination of childlabor as an objective of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and has includedpreparation of a child labor action plan in its workplan.[4194] The strategy paper established the Poverty Monitoring Master Plan (PMMP), whichincludes children in the labor force as a poverty monitoring indicator.[4195] From April 2000 to March 2001, the government conducted a child labor surveywith technical assistance from ILO-IPEC’s SIMPOC.[4196] In May 2003 the Tanzanian Ministry of Labor and the National Bureau ofStatistics released the Integrated Labor Force Survey for 2000/1, whichupdates the 1990/91 national labor survey. The ILFS includes data regardingchildren in the labor force.[4197]

Tanzania’s Basic Education Master Plan aims to achieveuniversal access to basic education for children over the age of 7, and ensurethat at least 80 percent of children complete primary education and are able toread and write by the age of 15.[4198] Under theplan, the government abolished school fees to promote children’senrollment in primary school.[4199] With support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Culture has launched a3-year program, Complementary Basic Education in the United Republic ofTanzania, to help children who have dropped out of school reintegrate into thesystem. [4200] The Ministry ofEducation and Culture has launched a Community Education Fund with World Banksupport to improve the school infrastructure.[4201] Through the Primary Education Development Program, the World Bank is supporting Government of Tanzania effortsto improve education quality, enhance access to schooling and increase schoolretention at the primary level.[4202] InJanuary 2002, the government introduced a grant to support the building andimprovement of classrooms that amounts to the provision of USD 400 per schoolper year on average.[4203] In June 2002, the Government of Tanzania was selected to receive funding fromthe World Bank and other donors under the Education for All Fast TrackInitiative, which aims to provide all children with a primary school educationby the year 2015.[4204] In 1997, Tanzania joined ILO-IPEC’s Action Against Child Labor through theEducation and Training Project, which has mobilized teachers, educators andtheir organizations, and the general public to launch campaigns against childlabor at the local and national levels.^[4205]

With funding from USAID, the Government of Tanzania in 1998launched the Social Action Trust Fund (SATF), which provides grants tocommunity groups and NGOs that work with victims of HIV/AIDS and theirfamilies. SATF grants have provided assistance to 13,525 AIDS orphans in 14regions, supporting primary and secondary education for children who wereunable to pay school fees and uniform and book costs because of the loss oftheir parents to AIDS.[4206] HIV/AIDS has led to many children being orphaned and left vulnerable to childlabor because of the need to provide for themselves.[4207]

Under its strategy paper, Tanzania established an EducationFund to support children from poor families.[4208] Tanzania has also identified education as a strategy for combating povertyunder its Development Vision 2025 and its Poverty Eradication Strategy 2015. The country’s poverty eradication agenda includes ensuring all children theright to basic quality education.[4209]

Incidence and Nature of Child Labor

In the 2000/2001 labor force survey, ILO-IPEC and theNational Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania , reported that 39.6 percent ofchildren ages 5 to 17 were economically active, while 47.8 percent were engagedin housekeeping activities.[4210] Participation in economic activities was highest in rural areas, while urbanareas claimed the higher proportion of engagement in activities within the household.[4211] Of economically active children, 97 percent are unpaid and working for familymembers.[4212]

Children work on commercial tea,[4213]coffee,[4214]sugar cane,[4215]sisal,[4216]cloves,[4217]and tobacco farms,[4218]and in the production of corn, green algae (seaweed), pyrethrum, rubber, andwheat.[4219] Children also work in underground mines.[4220] Children ages 7 to 13 years work in mine pits an average of 4 to 5 hours perday, while children ages 14 to 18 years work on average 7 hours per day. Children working in bars and restaurants near the mines work even longer hours,with children ages 10 to 13 years working an average of 14 hours per day.[4221] In the informal sector, children are engaged inscavenging, fishing, fish processing, informal quarrying, and work in informalgarages.[4222] Children also work in domestic service.[4223] In 2000, the survey indicated that children younger than 17 years comprise 80percent of domestic workers.[4224] Other children work as barmaids, street vendors, car washers, shoe shiners,carpenters, and auto repair mechanics.[4225] Girls as young as 7 years old, and increasingly boys, are reportedly subject tocommercial sexual exploitation.[4226] Children from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have also been identified engaging inprostitution in Tanzania.[4227]

According to reports, children have been trafficked to work in the fishing industry, mines,commercial agriculture, and domestic service.[4228] Children are trafficked fromrural areas for use in the commercial sex sector. Such children are oftenlured with false promises of work in urban areas as house girls, barmaids, andin hair salons.[4229] It is reported that female children are trafficked fromTanzania to South Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the UnitedStates for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.[4230] Children in the country’s largerefugee population have been particularly vulnerable to being trafficked towork on commercial farms.[4231] Some have also been taken from refugee camps to be trained as child soldiers inneighboring countries.[4232]

Education in Tanzania is compulsory for 7 years, untilchildren reach the age of 15, but families must pay for enrollment fees, booksand uniforms.[4233] In 2000, the gross primary enrollment rate was 63.0 percent, and the netprimary enrollment rate was 46.7 percent.[4234] In 2001, 56.9 percent of children aged 5 to 17attended school.[4235] In 1999, 81.8 percent of children enrolled in primary school reached grade 5.[4236]

Child Labor Laws and Enforcement

The Employment Ordinance of 1956 sets the minimum age foremployment at 15 years, and prohibits children from working near machinery orengaging in underground work. The law does not restrict children from workingin agriculture. [4237] Under the Employment Ordinance, employers are obliged to maintain registerslisting the age of workers, working conditions, the nature of employment, andcommencement and termination dates.[4238] Tanzania’s Constitution prohibits forced orcompulsory labor.[4239] Tanzanian law considers sexual intercourse with a child under the age of18 as rape,[4240] which is punishable withlife imprisonment.[4241] The Tanzanian Penal Code was amended in 2001 to include aprovision criminalizing trafficking within or outside Tanzania.[4242]

Several government agencies have jurisdiction over areasrelated to child labor, but primary responsibility for enforcing the country’schild labor laws rests with the Ministry of Labor, Youth Development andSports. A Child Labor Unit within the Ministry of Labor, as the secretariatfor the National Child Labour Elimination Steering Committee, serves as aliaison between the various government ministries and stakeholders. It isresponsible for administering child labor-related projects, conducting thechild labor component of the labor inspector training, and gathering anddisseminating data on child labor.[4243] At the community level,child labor monitoring committees have been established in areas with a highfrequency of child labor. [4244]

The Government of Tanzania ratified ILO Convention 138 onDecember 16, 1998, and ratified ILO Convention 182 on September 12, 2001.[4245]