Tobacco cultivation: the exploitation of children

According to the British Medical Journal, the global fight against child exploitation is a failure. Indeed, with nearly 1.5 million child workers, this phenomenon remains commonplace today, and is even increasing in some countries. It is estimated that a significant proportion of these children are employed in the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco.^[1]. Although it is impossible to establish precise figures, this practice is estimated to affect several million children worldwide, mostly concentrated in tobacco-exporting countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

Child labour and exploitation, already scandalous in itself, is even more problematic here, for two reasons.

• Assignment to poverty and no future for children

Tobacco cultivation requires a particularly considerable amount of work. For each hectare cultivated, 3,000 hours of work per person are necessary, compared to 265 for an equivalent area of corn. Children are thus required to work days of up to twelve hours., most of the time in scorching heat. Since most of them dropped out of school at a very young age, there is no prospect of improving their condition, leading to a multi-generational poverty^[2].

• Endangering the child's physical and mental health

While large quantities of chemicals are used in tobacco cultivation (insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers), most smallholders work without any protection, and often without knowing the health risks they are exposing themselves to. Working with bare hands, the harvester absorbs some of the nicotine present in the tobacco leaves. According to Plan International, Up to 54 milligrams of nicotine can end up in children's bodies each day, the equivalent of 50 cigarettes^[3]In such quantities, this neurotoxic substance causes severe nicotine poisoning: green tobacco sickness causes nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. This phenomenon is all the more worrying as it affects the child's cognitive development..