Busoga: Rise in cases of child labour attributed to poverty, culture
Child labour is a big problem in Uganda and it has greatly manifested in the Busoga sub-region districts of Buyende, Mayuge, Luuka, Kamuli, Kaliro, and Iganga where many children have dropped out of school.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), 45% of children (with ages of 5 – 17 years) in Busoga from households living below the poverty line are forced out of school to work and supplement their parents’ income.
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Sugar cane growing is the main economic activity in Busoga sub region. The region has eleven sugar plants (between small-scale millers and big manufacturers, with almost one for every district and is the largest producer of sugar in Uganda with approximately 300,000 tonnes of sugar produced annually.
Busoga sub region has the highest number of children (6-13) in employment that’s according to (UBOS) and this has come along with low enrolment rates and high dropout rates at both Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education levels.
This has affected both the boys and girls although boys are more likely to undertake activities in agriculture, the girl child has severely been affected with a high incidence of teenage pregnancies, early marriages among others.
Rising cases of sexual abuse especially in the sugarcane plantations and areas surrounding the plantations have been reported to authorities but little has been done to put an end to this status quo.
Joseph Musoke, the Kamuli municipality education officer, attributed the rising child labour cases to poverty and bad cultural practices like polygamy.
"Most men in rural areas still think that a man’s pride should be in parading his children and wives to work on his farms when the children are supposed to be at school," he said.
This is what has pushed Trailblazers Mentoring Foundation (TMF) and Youth Advocacy and Development Network (YADNET-Uganda) with support from Plan International Uganda to come up with a project called “She Leads Project”.
According to Harold Owinyo the project coordinator, the project will directly target 200 girls and young women from two sub counties in the two districts of Kamuli and Buyende and the sub-counties include Bugaya and Kagulu in Buyende and Butansi and Namasagali in Kamuli.
"The projects’ overall strategic goal is to see that girls and young women’s perspectives are included in gender-responsive laws, policies and social norms practices through the increased sustained influence of girls and young women in decision making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions," Owinyo said.
