Child labour in Botswana
Child labour in Botswana is defined as the exploitation of children through any form of work which is harmful to their physical, mental, social and moral development.
[1] Child labour in Botswana is characterised by the type of forced work at an associated age, as a result of reasons such as poverty and household-resource allocations.
[5] Botswana ratified the Minimum Age Convention in 1995, establishing a national policy allowing children at least fourteen-years old to work in specified conditions.
[3] The International Labour Organization accounts that Children "work for survival" and for other reasons which have repressed their ability to act freely.
[8] Sonia Bhalotra in her OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION WORKING PAPERS study states that due to "stagnated economic growth, HIV/AIDS, conflict, famine and poor hygiene has escalated the issue of child labour in Sub-Saharan Africa".
The United States Department of Labor states in their 2010 Worst Forms of Child Labour Report that a poor economic outlook for families and resource allocations influences the integration of Children in the labour force in many instances such where "parents from rural areas send their children to the city to live with wealthier families and to work as domestic servants".
[14] Matyas Baan in his article Realising Children's Rights in Botswana states that these communities are "disadvantaged and vulnerable due to being displaced remotely or considered as outcasts".
[14] The San community is a minority ethnic group, which is remotely located, distant from main-land services, which has led to social-protection issues in regards to children.
A 1992 study into five ethnic groups of the community reflect that out of 122 children 20 attended school, of which 15 had to travel 30 km or further, resulting in trade-offs to the local economies of herding, milking and graining.
The study shows how changing parental investment, marital status, availability of alternative productivity tasks, birth order and sex of children "have implications to understand child labour and time allocations and consequent welfare".
[16] Poverty is the condition where a community or individuals lack the access to basic necessities and financial resources to sustain a minimum standard of living.
[6] In 2012 the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Peter Siele, visited and talked to a 12 year old out-of-school worker about not attending school.
[18] Eva Procek in her 2006 Discussion document on child labour in Botswana investigates that children in rural and remote area's are vulnerable.
[22] The transmission of intergenerational poverty through the degraded economic outlook of Botswana, sees 2 out of 3 children missing secondary school.
[3] The Ministry of Labor and Home Affairs sustainability plan is another policy which sees volunteers and government affiliates work as labour inspectors to report accounts of child labour to social workers and school teachers to better understand school attendance trends and employment status.
The Human Trafficking Committee was established by the 2014 Anti-trafficking bill and is led by the Ministry of Defence, Justice, and Security (MDJS) to act as a reporting and referral mechanism.
It aims to protect children against exploitation and hazardous employment, defined as any work that is dangerous to the child's health, development and morals.
[19] The United States Department of Labor in the 2018 Child Labour and Forced Labour Reports, for Botswana, states that "gaps exist in Botswana's legal framework to adequately protect children from child labor" as there is no compulsory age of education legislation, inconsistent to the standards set by the ILO.
In 2017 the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) accounted for 7 convictions in the ill-treatment of children but did not explicitly link causation to child labour.
[3] The government funded Orphan Care Program subsidises school fees and provides meals to children to promote educational participation.
[3] Eva Procek in her 2006 Discussion Document on Child Labour in Botswana states possible strategies to alleviate causes, such as poverty, through National Youth Policy grants and reviews in the literacy programmes "to prevent children falling into detrimental work".
