https://chimpreports.com/opinion-address-child-labour-in-ugandas-mining-sector/
By Phillo Aryatwijuka,
Behind the beautiful well-constructed houses, hotels,
work places that we love and are proud of, to our beautiful gold accessories that
we proudly wear there is a sad child labour story of a child miner who misses
school and is exploited all day long. A story of one Aleper Paul who toils every
day at Kosiroi Tororo Cement limestone Mining site in Moroto District to break
the limestone rocks for cement companies to make for us building cement to another story of Nakiru Veronica who works
with her parents to break and pile marble at Rata Mining site in marble rich Rupa
Sub county and sell to middlemen who in turn sell it to paint companies as a
raw material for that beautiful paint you love on your walls and not forgetting
a one Moru Paul a child gold Miner who survived a mine collapse accident last
year just to bring us that much needed gold that ends up on one of our gold
accessories that we love so much.
This is the price children are paying to
survive as they provide raw materials for the construction sector needs mainly housing
and big infrastructure projects like roads whose demand is growing tremendously
in Uganda and across the region, the demand of development minerals; aggregates,
dimension stones,sand,marble,limestone among others. The question is for how
long can we keep silent as we watch our children being exploited and wasting
away their future as they build the roads we enjoy driving on, the houses and
cities we love?
Currently Uganda has in place a strong legal
and regulatory framework pertaining to child labour particularly the Child
Labour Policy 2016 and the National Action Plan for elimination of child labour
which focuses on operationalizing the policy as well as other key laws like the
Children’s Act 2016 and the employment Act. Uganda has further gone ahead to
ratify the international Labour Organization (ILO) and other UN conventions on
child labour. Despite this Child labour in mining which is categorized among
the worst forms continues to be on the rise in the mining sector.
The recent study conducted by Ecological
Christian Organization (ECO) in the gold mining areas of Moroto shows that
mining contributes to low school attendance and low retention in schools. Children
from as young as 5-16years are spending their time carrying out activities like
fetching water a main ingredient in gold mining for as far as 5 kilometer from
the mining sites to doing underground excavation work as well as panning. The
effects of this work translate to health problems like chest pains, extreme
fatigue, and external wounds among others in the children. It’s not surprising
that when one visits the mining sites there is always astonishment when a child
mentions their age. My surprise came with my first encounter with one 15 year old Nandonga Regina a child Miner
from Lomario village in Rupa mineral rich sub county who at that time looked
like 10 years and that clearly reflected to retardation in growth.
Without doubt the Government of Uganda needs to rise up to this challenge with support and collaboration from different stakeholders and holistically address child labour in the mineral sector. A perfect example being addressing the resource constraints experienced by the local governments labour offices which are poorly underfunded to carry out inspections, monitoring and follow ups of child labour related cases to ensure that mining sites a child labour free. The other opportunity lies in the new mining policy of Uganda 2018 which speaks to organizing, licensing and regulating artisanal and small scale mining in Uganda which can largely contribute to elimination of child labour in ASM value chains by holding the ASM accountable
No comments:
Post a Comment