ILO hails Luanar for child labour fight initiative
The International Labour Organisation (ILO)has commended Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) for including child labour issues in its programmes to end the practice in the country.
In an interview on Friday, ILO national project coordinator Patrick Makondetsa observed that the initiative will help Malawians understand how child labour can be prevented.
He said: “Malawi is putting much effort through various interventions and collaboration with stakeholders in the fight against child labour. It is a positive development to ending child labour.”
Makondetsa said for a long time, universities in Malawi did not mainstream child labour issues in their curricula, leaving their students ill-equipped to fight the malpractice.
In his remarks, Luanar programmes coordinator Andrew Safalaoh noted that child labour requires concerted effort to eliminate.
He said: “Child labour is a social evil and a threat to national development. We are training students because they are future specialists in various programmes. “We want to ensure that they are able to promote the issues in their work places so that people understand ways of eliminating child labour.”
Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development deputy commissioner Wafwire Musukwa said the move will strengthen the fight against child labour in the agricultural sector.
He said: “We have never had a policy for child labour and because of that we had challenges in fighting the social problem. The ministry has drafted a child labour policy which will be presented to the Cabinet for validation.”
Among other clauses, the policy provides for legal redresses which will create a conducive environment for eliminating the vice.
It also has a component of awareness campaigns for communities and the general public to understand what child labour entails.
Early this month, Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila told the media at Bingu International Convention Centre (Bicc) in Lilongwe that the tobacco and tea industries have reduced child labour.
He said the country has over 2 000 children employed in labour, a trend which affects children’s development. n
