The main streets in the capital of Cameroon, Janude, are full of street vendors. Children aged 7 to 14 who stand at traffic lights in large intersections and markets to sell water, peanuts, dried bananas and whatever else they can, to buy notebooks and books for school and boost family income. Children who should normally be at school. Sandal Zanga, the school principal, does not hide her anger. “I’m against child trafficking on the streets,” he told DW. “The child has a right to protection. “If we send it to the streets, who will protect it?”
“Changing the structure of the world economy”
The 4,000 participants in the 5th World Conference against Child Labor are trying to find a solution to the huge problem in the South African city of Durban. The president of the host country, Cyril Ramafoza, called for an end to the practice. “The truth is that unless we change the structure of the global economy and its institutions, the prospects for eliminating child labor and providing decent work are limited,” he said at the start of work. Achieving the goal is still a long way off. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 72 million children in sub-Saharan Africa, or one in five, are forced to work. Experts estimate that millions more are at risk from the effects of the pandemic.
Minor street vendors are exposed to the weather, traffic, and sometimes sexual violence on a daily basis. Of course, child labor is legally banned in Cameroon, according to activist Pauline Beyong. “Cameroon has ratified many articles on child protection. This phenomenon should be marginal, but unfortunately in our cities we see children being used as labor by their parents. This is not normal.
Child labor and Nestlé
Poverty remains one of the main causes of child labor. To support themselves and their families, the children work in the gold mines of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They risk their lives as minor soldiers, for example in South Sudan. They also work in agriculture and often accept the low wages dictated by the world market. This is the case with cocoa growing in Cκτήte d’Ivoire. There, the Swiss company Nestlé is trying to restore its reputation for growing cocoa – including by building classrooms for children in farms and literacy campaigns for women in the market. But the children are still working on some cocoa plantations, he admits. “The problem of child labor is real” in an interview with DW:
As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, all 193 Member States are committed to taking effective action to eliminate forced labor, modern slavery, trafficking and the worst forms of child labor by 2025, including recruitment. children of soldiers. But checks to stop the phenomenon are rare, criticizes the children’s charity Plan International. Desire unfortunately does not meet reality.
DW
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