Ignorance Fuels Child Labour in Coffee Fields

Malawi: Malawi's economy is largely dependent on agriculture, with cash crops such as tobacco, tea, and coffee playing a crucial role. However, the majority of farmers involved in the production of these cash crops often rely on cheap labour, which often comes in the form of child labour, writes Soyapi Jalanthowa.

According tothe National Statistical Office, 38% of children in Malawi are involved in child labour, primarily in the agriculture sector, due to poverty.

Many families who cannot afford basic necessities such as food, water, education, or healthcare are forced to send their children to work in order to supplement their household incomes.

In the coffee-growing regions around Khonsolo in Mzimba, farmers have long relied on their children to help with their coffee fields, sacrificing their education in the process. Margaret Chirwa, a 54-year-old coffee farmer from the hilly areas of Khonsolo, is no exception.

"We thought nothing was wrong in using our children to help out in the coffee fields as we didn't have money to hire workers," Chirwa said.

Chirwa added that children would often miss classes when the workload in the fields became too heavy. Another coffee farmer, Luiza Kalua of Mungalozi village in Inkosi Khonsolo, agrees with Chirwa.

The exploitation of child labour in Malawi's agriculture sector is a pressing issue that requires immediate attention and action. The government, along with non-profit organizations and international aid agencies, must work together to address poverty and provide families with alternatives to sending their children to work.

Kalua, a resident of Kabena Zone in the coffee-growing area of Khonsolo, acknowledges that they once thought there was no problem with using their children in plucking coffee berries.

Little did they know that they were infringing on the children's rights, leading to a high number of school dropouts in the area.

According to Mayamiko Nkhonjera, a teacher in Kabena Zone, many children in the area were forced to leave school to work in coffee fields, affecting their education and even leading to early marriages for girls.

However, the situation has changed for the better thanks to the Accelerating Action in the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains of Tea and Coffee (ACCEL Africa) project.

The project is being implemented by a consortium of organizations, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU), the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM), the Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM), the Tea Association of Malawi Limited, and ICEED.

The ACCEL project aims to eliminate child labour in the tea and coffee supply chains in the districts of Chitipa, Mzimba, Mulanje, Thyolo, and Ntchisi, where the crops are grown. It also seeks to improve policies and legal frameworks to address labour issues in global supply chains, providing innovative evidence-based solutions to root out the causes of child labour.

The project is aligned with the Malawi Decent Work Country Program (DWCP-11, 2020-2025) and aims to ensure that international labour standards and crucial rights are upheld in places of work.

"You can move around the villages where coffee is grown and you will not see any child working in the coffee fields because now we understand that involving them infringes on their educational rights," said Chirwa while standing close to her coffee trees.

"We are now learned as we have attended a lot of sensitization meetings on the subject."

Josephy Kankhwangwa, the project coordinator for the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU), one of the partners in the ACCEL project, says that as the MCTU, they are involved in ending child labour in all aspects of work in the country, including the agriculture sector.

"We are also trying to recruit workers in these coffee and tea supply chains into unions so that they are aware of their rights and related labour laws and will refrain from using child labour," said Kankhwangwa.

He noted that the ACCEL project has had an impact in ending child labour among coffee growers around Khonsolo, though they are not making meaningful gains from their work due to a number of challenges in the supply chains.

"While we have observed that now farmers are not using child labour in coffee growing due to the sensitization that has been ongoing, they are not genuinely reaping from their labour because of the existing bureaucracy in the supply chains," said Kankhwangwa.

He added that strong unions in cooperatives can play a significant role in ending child labour and ensuring that farmers are maximizing their gains while enjoying their labour rights.

MCTU has been training child labour committees, local governance structures, and some child protection workers to equip them with the relevant information in the fight against child labour.

"We are also training child labour committee members and representatives of local governance structures so that they are aware of what the law says when it comes to child rights, labour laws related to child labour, the role of trade unions in fighting child labour, and also the gender-based aspect of the whole concept of this fight against child labour," said Kankhwangwa.

"You can move around the villages where coffee is grown, you will not see any child working in coffee fields because now we understand that involving them infringes on their educational rights. We are now learned as we have attended a lot of sensitization meetings on the same," said Chirwa while standing close to her coffee trees.

Josephy Kankhwangwa, the project coordinator for MCTU, one of the partners in the ACCEL project, stated that they are involved in ending child labour in all aspects of work in the country, including the agriculture sector.

"We are also trying to recruit workers in these coffee and tea supply chains into unions so that they are aware about their rights and related labour laws and refrain from using child labour," said Kankhwangwa.

Russell Mhoni, Mzimba district child labour officer, said that since the inception of the ACCEL project, over 20 children who were involved in coffee growing have been withdrawn from such work and enrolled for skills training.

"Now we feel the message on child labour has sunk in as we have observed through inspections that almost all farmers are not involving their children in coffee fields even those growing tobacco are not using child labour which is a plus to us as the government," said Mhoni.

Pempho Manda, assistant program coordinator for TUM, noted that child labour remains a thorn in the flesh for children in coffee and tea supply chains and has a direct impact on their education.

"Child labour is really rampant in Malawi's coffee and tea supply chains, it's actually a very big problem, and it's really retrogressive when it comes to the development of our communities and the future of our children," said Manda.

TUM has been drilling teachers on how they can use the concept of Supporting Children's Rights in Education through acts of Media (SCREAM) methodologies to ensure that learners are empowered to fight child labour.

"We want them to be able to engage learners in their schools and different fora and raise the bar for children to know what child labour is and be able to stand with us in the fight against the malpractice," said Manda.

Despite Malawi having ratified all international instruments on ending child labour and the government having institutional mechanisms aimed at reversing the trend, the enforcement of such is hampered by prevailing gaps in the work of the Ministry of Labour, like inadequate funding, which in turn compromises efforts to enforce child labour laws.

In this vein, more needs to be done to end child labour, a vice that deprives children of their education and potential to grow into responsible future citizens who can play a significant role in achieving the aspirations in the Malawi 2063 blueprint.