![]() Poverty: the first obstacle in the fight against child labour It is currently impossible to obtain exact figures for the whole country, as there is no register of creuseurs (‘diggers’), the generic term used to designate all of the mineworkers. In 2014, a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study estimated that 40,000 children of all ages were still working in mines in the country’s south-east. ![]() The ambitious programme was never formally adopted, and since then little has been done. The plan called for “raising awareness about and ensuring enforcement of child labour laws,” as well as “making technical and vocational training accessible,” and “providing access to educational programmes for children rescued from work.” It also included recommendations on “improving living conditions for vulnerable households,” to ensure that socio-economic precariousness does not force families to make their children work. In 2011, the Congolese government submitted a national action plan to the ILO aimed at ending child labour in the mines. The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has announced commitments in recent years, and the country is signatory to International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 138 (which sets the minimum working age at 14) and 182 (on the worst forms of child labour). The presence of school-age children in these mines has not been met with indifference. “There’s another team in the morning.” Although Jacques is happy to be able to help his family, he does not hide his concern for his future, nor his sadness at not having better prospects. “But there’s a lot more of us,” he explains. About 30 baby-faced adolescents, some around Jacques’ age, some much younger, work alongside him. “A little more on good days,” he emphasises.Ĭarrying loads of between 25 and 50 kilograms is exhausting work, but that doesn’t deter young people in the region. He spends his days carrying bags of mineralised sand, for which he earns between US$3 and US$5 a day, depending on how many bags he transports entirely by foot. Three years have gone by and he hasn’t set foot in a classroom since. We had to find a solution,” he explains in a polite but firm tone, as if to avoid reproach. “We had no money at home to eat between the two harvests. As he tells Equal Times, he dropped out of school at the age of 13. Jacques Muhire spends his days working in one of these shallow open-pit mines. And as the insatiable appetite of the new digital economy continues to grow, demand for these minerals shows no sign of abating. These minerals will primarily be used to manufacture capacitors, which are present in all electronic devices. The strain of this exhausting work shows on their faces. In Rubaya, 45 kilometres from the North Kivu city of Goma, in a dozen open-pit mines that quickly turn into mud pits at the slightest rainfall, school-age children work tirelessly, digging, washing, sorting and transporting the minerals niobium, cassiterite and coltan (colombite-tantalites).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |