In a new finding, Plan, one of the largest children's development organizations, released a report stating that an estimated 78,000 children in Malawi are working in the tobacco estates - a finding that completely contradicts laws governing child protection.
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Founded over 70 years ago, Plan is one of the oldest and largest children's development organizations in the world. It works in 48 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty.
The Malawi Constitution section 23 says, Children are entitled to be protected from economic exploitation or any treatment, work, or punishment that is, or is likely to be hazardous; interfere with their education or harmful to their health or to their physical or mental or spiritual or social development.
The report, Hard Work, Long Hours and Little Pay, claims that the number of children working in the tobacco estates "could be much higher."
Minister of Labor Yunus Mussa and the Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA) officials' - a governmental organization - told journalists at a press briefing in Lilongwe that the report was not true.
Plan Malawi explained in its report that the children who took part in the survey had either worked full-time or part-time in the tobacco farms.
"Children revealed that they suffer physical and sexual abuse from their supervisors and regularly have their pay withheld. They are also blighted by the physical effects of green tobacco sickness (GTS), which occurs when nicotine is absorbed through their skin after contact with tobacco leaves," says the report.
Green Tobacco Sickness
"Children revealed that they suffer physical and sexual abuse from their supervisors and regularly have their pay withheld."
Plan Malawi carried out its research in tobacco farms in Malawi last year and released its findings in August 2009.
The organization did this study "to find out how children experience work on tobacco farms and their understanding of why they are involved in this work."
Forty four children, aged 12-18 participated in the research from the country's three districts - Lilongwe, Kasungu, and Mzimba, where tobacco is the main cash crop.
One of the major reasons of why children are doing this work is poverty. Most homes are headed by grannies and widows, and to raise money for school is a nightmare for many families.
The report explains that it was the children themselves who chose to work. This happens out of their strong sense of responsibility toward their families, particularly those living with aging grandparents - ill or disabled parents.
Plan Malawi also found out that symptoms of green tobacco sickness were widely reported though none of the children linked these symptoms to the tobacco they handled.
Green tobacco sickness is an illness resulting from dermal exposure to dissolved nicotine from wet tobacco leaves; it is characterized by nausea, vomiting, weakness, and dizziness and sometimes fluctuations in blood pressure or heart rate.(CDC)
In addition, children reported coughing and breathlessness caused by tobacco dust during sorting and grading.
The report added that another symptom, coughing of blood, is a widely reported physical condition, especially after hard work, such as carrying heavy loads. Significant psychosocial impacts were also reported.
The report further revealed that children are suffering severe physical symptoms from absorbing up to 54 milligrams a day of dissolved nicotine through their skin, which is equivalent to 50 average cigarettes.
Denial
Children are entitled to be protected from economic exploitation or any treatment, work, or punishment that is, or is likely to be hazardous; interfere with their education or harmful to their health or to their physical or mental or spiritual or social development.
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The Government of Malawi claims that there were no children working in the tobacco estates.
"I want to challenge Plan Malawi to mention any estate in Malawi, where there are children employed," said Mussa, who admitted that in the past children worked in the tobacco estates.
According to him, children are no longer employed in the estates "these days, and the issue has now been addressed."
Mussa said the issue of children aged from 10 years and above, helping their parents in the farms was not an issue. He said many children were helping their parents in their gardens "only when they are out of school."
Following the report, Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) reported that it was happy to have Malawi tobacco on the watch list for child labor.
ILRF's campaign director, Tim Newman, said in an e-mail interview to IslamOnline.net that they recommended to the US government to include tobacco from Malawi on the US watch list of products that are produced through child labor or indenture labor.
The Youth Development and Advancement Organization (YOUDAO), a local NGO, has accused the government of turning a blind eye to the report.
"The government should have studied the report and make their own investigations. Government should not be dismissive of everything," he told IOL.
He says his organization's role in this regard is to advocate for the rights and welfare of children working in the tobacco estates.
When contacted for comments, Glynis Clacherty, the director of Clacherty & Associates Education and Social Development (Pty) Limited based in South Africa and the author of the report, told IOL that the research was a qualitative work, not about the number of children who work on tobacco farms, but about the difficult conditions children are facing.
The consultant did not interview government officers because that was not about policy, or what the government thought but to find out what children were experiencing.
"I used a scientifically accepted research approach for qualitative work, and the results are a valid representation of the lives of children, who are living on tobacco farms. This is what the children we worked with told us. Because we worked with a random sample of children across a range of areas, it is most likely that this is also the experience of many," said Clacherty.
A study carried out by the University of Malawi's Centre for Social Research in 2005 found out that out of the 1,496 girls sampled in the survey, 85.2 percent were attending school while the remaining 14.6 percent were not. The reasons for not attending classes, among others, were poverty and forced labor by parents.
Statistics show that an estimated 56 percent of the 13.6 million population lives on less than US$1 a day.
Government official statistics show that an estimated 75 percent of Malawi's export earnings come from tobacco, and it accounts for about 30 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and nearly 78 percent of the population in Malawi is either directly or indirectly dependent on tobacco. Enditem
