Children’s perspectives on their working lives and
on public action against child labour in Burkina Faso
Joséphine Wouango Postdoc. Research Fellow, University of Reading, UK
Research Associate, University of Liège, Belgium
Presented at an East African Regional Symposium on Child Work/Child
Labour, 20-21 March 2014
Presentation outline
I. The case study: children at work in a granit
quarry and an artisanal mine
II. Combating child labour in Burkina Faso:
policies and programmes, children and
parents’ opinions
Burkina Faso
- One of the poorest countries in the
world: Human Development
Index rating 181 out of 187
- 46.4% of the population living
under the poverty line (NISD,
2011)
- with 77% of the population living
in rural area
- young population, with 46.4% of
the population is under 15 years
Child labour as a public problem in Burkina Faso
• Interest for the problem of child labour is recent, in the late 90’s
• The necessity to implement concrete measures to eliminate these
worst forms of child labour, started in the 2000’s
• National survey revealed that 41.1% of children aged 5 to 17 are
working children (NISD, 2008)
• The main sectors: agriculture, quarries and gold mines, informal
sector, domestic services
• Compared to three other West-African countries (Mali, Senegal,
Ivory Coast),
Burkina Faso has the highest rate of children involved in
“hazardous work”, which is one working child out of two (Diallo,
2008)
I. The Case study:
children at work in a granit quarry and an artisanal mine
Gold mine of
Gorol Kadgè
Granit quarry of Pissy
Localisation of the two sites
• There are at least 210 artisanal mines and quarries in Burkina Faso
(Ministry of Mining, Quarries and Energy, 2003)
• No statistic exists to evaluate the number of children (and adults) involved in
these mines and quarries
Context of the research: methods and sample
• In the frame of a doctoral research on policies and practices in the
fight against child labour in Burkina Faso (2012)
• The data used for this presentation are especially based on qualitative
fieldwork carried out in the two sites
• Semi-structured in-depth interviews with working children, their
parents or relatives, and employers
• Observation of children in their daily activities
• A sample of working children (n=40) focusing on their working
experiences, earnings and difficulties, life history
• 20 children in the granit quarry and 20 children in the mine
• aged under 18 years old
• Recruitment of the study participants directly in the two sites: they
are under 18, have been working in the sites
Site 1: The granit quarry of Pissy
• Located in the capital Ouagadougou
• Families originate from three
districts/suburbs (17, 18 and 19)
• New workers named “the repatriates from
Ivory Cost” arrived in 1998 following the
conflict
• 4 categories of workers: adult men who
extract and process stones; women (called
locally “concasseuses”) who crush
and grind aggregate stones; children, a
large majority of whom crush the granit;
and the retailers (adult men) who sell back
the final materials to building contractors
and private individuals
• A few number of children were ambulant
vendors
• Women, children and men all have to sell
their products to the retailers
Children activities and working conditions (1)
• The main activity of the children is to crush the stones into gravel with small hammers
• Age: all children interviewed were crushing stones. The oldest children also help parents
or employers with the transportation of the granit blocks
• No gender difference: there is no clear gender division in the tasks; boys and girls
perform the same activities (crushing and carrying)
• Work/School: 7 out of 20 children were combining working activities with school
• Child employment: only 2 children interviewed were working as “employee”, all the
others worked with their parents or relatives
• Difference by wealth/ family origin: children definitely originate from urban poor
families, often single-mothers with a large responsibility of taking care of the children
• Children’s activities are related to the strategies of parents and relatives
Children activities and working conditions (2)
• Working conditions of children are harsh and precarious: long
days of work (at least 10h per day), no use
protective breathing mask against the dust and acid fumes (from
burned tyres in the quarry)
• There is a limited access (if any) to health facilities, no social
protection in case of illness or any workplace injuries
• Children (as adults) are aware of the hardness and consequences
of their activities, as they have already experienced injuries.
Children sometimes miss the stone and hit their hands, legs or feet
“Of course the work is difficult, I hurt my fingers twice, I stayed at home for
four days. I came back when I felt better” (14 years boy, quarry)
• Children activities in the quarry are a great help for parents
Site 2: The artisanal mine of Gorol Kadgè
• Gorol Kadgè is a village located
northern from the capital
• Main activities in the region are
agriculture and livestock
• But, the region has dry grounds,
insufficient rain (even scarce) and
harvests are often poor
• Artisanal mines became an alternative
for these poor harvests and is a relative
important source of income
• A great number of artisanal mines are
being discovered in the region these last
years
• Mining activities are undertaken during
dry season (theoretically, the site is
closed during rainy season)
Credit: Lucien Zongo
Children activities and working conditions (1)
• Different tasks performed by children, they are involved in all activities
of the mining process: on the surface (rock transport and crushing, sifting
and washing), in the pits (digging)
• Gender difference by activity: boys work underground and do the
transport of the rocks; most girls work on the surface. Except for
digging, there is no strict segregation girl/boy’s activities
• Age difference: the younger (under 10) are generally given less harsh
activities (small scale selling and water transport). The others work in all
activities of the mining process
• School: 2 out of 20 children interviewed reported to go to school. The
Sahel region has the lowest school rate and the development of mining
activities leads many children to definitely leave school (cf. Sangaré,
2007; Yaro and Kobanka, 2010 )
• Origin: poor families, mostly children come from neighbouring villages
and walk up to 10 km to the mine
• Child employment: there are more children employed by the pits or
galleries’ owners (compared to the quarry)
Children activities and working conditions (2)
• Similar to the quarry, working conditions are harsh: long working days
(between 8 to 14 hours per day) and long days of walking
• Little use, if any, of protective clothing or equipment against the dust (both
in the pits and in the processing zones)
• Adults use mercury to amalgamate the gold, which can lead to mercury
poisoning
• Workers listed physical injuries and other health consequences: lung
diseases and other respiratory infections, wounds and fractures, eye
injuries, pain and muscle aches, danger from dynamite blasting, etc.)
• Children do recognise their work is risky, they have experienced injuries or
have been ill due to hard working
“Because I have to bend a lot, I have a bad back. Often, I also have headaches and pains all
over my body, especially at night when I go to sleep. In the morning, I sometimes have trouble
getting up [...]. I often also have stomach aches. My mother tells me to stay at home when I
really don’t feel good. When I recover, I return to help” (14 years old girl, in the mine)
• Some children report the heaviness of the work in accordance with their
age, they sometimes don’t get paid, report insufficient access to food
Reasons for working in both sites
• Economic necessity: seen as the main raison, children have to contribute to the
family income (46,4% of population under poverty line, which is 82 673 Fcfa )
• Social meaning: work is a mean of child protection and behaviour regulation
against bad frequentation if children stay at home. The presence of younger
children in the quarry is seen as “accompanying the mother” who keeps an eye
on them. According to their age, children learn by doing => a form of
socialisation and training
• Children’s choice: by working, they can also save money for their expenses
or undertake another activity in the future: work provides independence and
positive self-esteem to children. By contributing to family income and hence
wellbeing, children gain autonomy and recognition in their family
• Educational needs: children’s income help to pay their own school fees or
those of their (younger) siblings
=> Children’s activities in the two sites can either be an obligation (parents
decide), either a choice (of children) or be imposed (by the family
circumstances or economic situation)
II. Combating child labour in Burkina Faso: policies
and programmes, children and parents’ opinions
• Historical analysis of child labour in Burkina Faso (Wouango, 2012)
shows: a renewed interest since late 90’s
• At the state level: measures are still limited to legislative and
institutional responses, there are no direct actions by government
institutions aiming to help working children on a personal or family level
• The civil society organisations: involved in more concrete actions with
projects aiming to remove children from “hazardous work”
* Results: children some children are removed for school or training
activities
* Challenge: too many children to be removed, new children arrive in
the sites, projects are limited in time and funding
=> The resources available at the State and NGOs’ level are insufficient to
meet the expectations of children (and parents) working in the numerous
mines and quarries in Burkina Faso
Public action against child labour in Burkina Faso
Working children’s views on actions against child labour
• The question to children was: “What will you do if the government enforces the
law preventing children’s under a certain age to work on this site?
• Different reactions from children: they expect changes in their situation, but refuse
an unilateral ban of their work without sustainable alternatives replacing the income
they are earnings
“If the government says we should not come to work here any more, what are we going to eat if
we stay a home?” (14 year girl in the quarry)
• Removal of children means providing them with training activities in other sectors
to earn their living, helping their parents financially and also provide free or easy
access to education
• Despite the harsh working conditions, some children say they’ll to continue to work
on the sites because of lack of work. Public authorities talk about a ‘obstinacy’ but
there are pragmatic logics
• These opinions confirm the 2006 Ministry of Social Affairs study on children’s
perception of work/labour which is: “if parents are poor and if there is not enough
food, children have to work not only to earn a living but also to help the parents”
Child labour (and children’s activity) is not a matter of ‘exploitation’ as such but a
matter of earning money to solve a number of everyday problems
Parents' opinion on the fight against child labour
• They are aware of the dangers and difficulties of children activities on the
different sites, which contrast with the argument of parents irresponsibility
(Thorsen, 2012)
• For them, banning children’s work means providing them with solutions
“In this country, like is difficult for everybody. If the government says that children
should not work, therefore the government has to help us to feed and care for our
children” (a father in the artisanal mine)
• Some parents have pragmatic arguments regarding the school system:
children have to be educated, they have to learn basic knowledge (read,
count, write); Expect their own children to have better life in the future
• Inadequacy between degree and labour market; example: among 1,000
graduated in 2009 (all kind of training included), only 25% will find a job
• The 2006 Ministry of Social Affairs study confirms these facts as well other
studies in the country confirm parents’ opinions
• Children’s work is accepted, its ban is refused and the combination work
and school is also accepted and even favoured
Conclusion
• Children acknowledge very difficult family conditions and are aware they live in extreme poverty and in areas where there are few alternatives to earn a living
• The fact that children work is a problem for public and private actors involved in the fight against child labour in Burkina Faso
• But for children and their parents, the work that children are performing is a solution to greater problems they face in their everyday life
• The few existing assessments of projects recommend more context-
appropriate interventions taking into account local realities
“If you promote school for removed children, while the nearest school is at 7 km from
the child’s house and the mine at 2 km, there is problem!”( a researcher who did
projects' assessment)
• The points of view of working children (and those of their parents) are important to be seriously heard in nowadays debates on “combating child labour” in Burkina Faso
• There is not yet evidence showing that these points of view are really heard and integrated in policies and programmes dealing with child labour/work
Thanks for your attention
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