Stakeholders worry over increased cases of child labor

Stakeholders in the fight against child labor in Malawi have expressed worry over the increase in the number of children employed in companies, home and estates in the country.

According to a new  global child labor report by  international labor organization  from 2002 to 2018 child labor is at 2.1 million children.

briefing journalist in Blantyre   Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi ECAM executive director George Khaki said Malawi has 12 increased  the number of child labor by 12 percent in 2018.

khakhi said this is  a worrisome development since the country made commitment to end child labor by 2025.

speaking  to radio Islam after the meeting,  guest of honor at the faction Annie Chavula who is  ECAM executive council member  said ECAM has embarked on a project to  mentor and impart entrepreneurial skills in children above 18 years of age as way of ending child labor.

chavula said child labor is  evil and erodes the potential skills of human resource that could have developed the nation in future.

“We have a number of programs as ECAM in which we are targeting schools where we can mentor our children and we have also another program on internship program which we are running together with ministry of labor. Those programs they help our children so that they have a purpose when they are going to school so that they know what they are doing”, said Chavula.

In his remarks,  senior Project officer for Accelerating Action for the elimination of child labor  Dylan Van Tromp  said the new global estimate report  revealed that for over 20 years  there were 200 million child labor but now the number has increased to 262 million globally.

van Tromp said in  20 years  the war on child labor is losing truck as the number  has increased dramatically.

he said there are fears that with covid 19, the rate might escalate further as more household will result in into child labor.