Causes of Child Labour : A case study in Babati town, Tanzania

Abstract: Tanzania ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1991, but still 32 per cent of the Tanzanian children estimate to be involved in child labour. Why children work, the work they most commonly do, and under the conditions which they work differ regionally. This study aims to find the underlying causes behind child labour among boys in Babati Town, both from the researcher’s - and the children’s own perspective. The study was accomplished through a qualitative case study in Babati Town and the data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, primarily with the child labourers’ themselves to get the right child perspective. The data from the interviews was analyzed according to four chosen theories of underlying causes behind child labor with the purpose to see to what extent the findings of the study correlate to the indicators outlined in each theory. The study found that indicators from each theory correlating with the Babati case with poverty as the major underlying cause behind the labouring. From the child labourer’s perspective was poverty the underlying cause for their labouring. Poverty on its own was though, from the researcher’s perspective, found to be insufficient to explain the prevalence of child labour. The problem of child labour is massive due mainly widespread poverty but also due the social context and its traditions, insufficient funding, school policies and inadequate implementing of important regulations as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.