By Joseph Ligowe

Blantyre, August 17, Mana: Chief Labour Officer in the Ministry of Labour, Francis Kwenda has said negative effects of education, lack of decent work for parents, climate change, cultural norms and Poverty are the major factors fueling child labour in the country.

Kwenda who is also Head of Child Labour Unit, said this on Friday in Blantyre during the closing of a two-day media training on legal and policy framework, action plan and reporting mechanism on child labour issues.

The training was aimed at building capacity of the media on how they can help in combating child labour cases.

Kwenda said child labour causes discomfort on both national and community level, resulting into lack of skilled personnel, criminology and prostitution, as such journalists are stakeholders in bridging the gap between child labour sector and the community.

“This training is designed to equip media professionals with the requisite skills, knowledge and inspiration required to effectively contribute to child labour elimination in the supply chain of the country.

“As ears and eyes of people, the media has to compel ethical, impactful media content on child labour and produce reports that engage and advocate towards change,” said Kwenda.

He said child labour is very common in agriculture, forestry and fishing followed by community, social and personal services.

He said the southern region has the highest prevalence of child labour of about 44% followed by the northern and central regions at 34 percent each.

One of the participants from Ndirande FM, Noel Mkwaila commended the Ministry of labour for the training, noting that it is the duty of the media to co-ordinate and promote quality control measures on awareness and sensitization messages through storytelling, and act as a link between stakeholders and communities in mainstreaming issues related to child labour.

“Issues of child labour can affect the economy of the country, as journalists it is our role and we have to take full responsibility in awareness against the evils of child labour. If we are to combat child labour, we have to provide accurate information and protect the rights of the child by ensuring accountability which will help prevent and address the vice” he said.

The 2015 National Child Labour Survey which was published in 2017 indicated that 2.1 million representing 38 percent of children aged 5-17 years are involved in child labour; whereby, more children aged 5-17 years are from rural areas than urban.