Committee to monitor child labour put in place

A County Child Labour Committee has been inaugurated to address child labour issues in Bungoma County.The Committee which will comprise various departments of the National government, County government, Faith-based Organizations, and the civil society will work on intervening in child labour issues and make decisions in the best interests of children in the area.Speaking at the inauguration workshop in Bungoma Friday Mr. Andrew Odete from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) CAPSA program said that child labour issues are rampant in most parts of the country but were rarely addressed within the counties and that the committee will be instrumental in advising on policy issues of child labour.He said that the committee will also monitor the situation of child labour in the County, investigate incidents and update the Area Advisory Committee on child labour matters.Mr. Odete said that child labor includes situations where children are deployed to do work that is harmful to their health, wellbeing and general development and also when children are forced to work when they are supposed to be in school.He said that child labour is when the work that the children are exposed to is work that is morally, physically and mentally harmful to the children.Mr. Odete said that Bungoma being a border County, some of the key child labour issues were driven by cross border trafficking of persons including smuggling of contraband materials using children.He said that sexual prostitution which is largely driven by the high number of long distance truck drivers that ply the Mombasa-Malaba road was also affecting children in the area.Mr. Odete noted that Bungoma being an agricultural economy also bears the brunt of having many of the children working on the small holder and family farms and the informal sector of agriculture.He said that the committee is expected to be a good start for the National and County government and other stakeholders to come up with a blue print for addressing child labour issues effe ctively in the County.Mr. Odete said that the ILO project is supporting the County to develop a directory of service providers and a referral guide that will help the coordination of all stakeholders who are engaged in child protection activities in the County.Any stakeholder wishing to support a child in child labour or any other issue, whether it be legal or education related will be able to access the contacts and details of the stakeholder and service provider in the directory.Participants at the workshop were drawn from National government, County Government, and non-governmental departments.Source: Kenya News Agency