World Day Against Child Labour: A Still Unacceptable Reality in Tobacco Cultivation
June 12, 2020
Par: chef-projet@dnf.asso.fr
Dernière mise à jour: June 12, 2020
Temps de lecture: 3 minutes
In 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour to regularly highlight violations of their rights in the workplace, violations that hinder their proper physical and mental development and well-being. Nearly two decades later, the employment of children in the tobacco sector is not disappointing, it is revolting.
Child employment in the tobacco sector: at least 16 countries concerned
The U.S. Department of Labor's 2018 Report on Goods Produced with Child Labor[1] number of countries involving children in the tobacco sector at 16. However, this is an economic activity that should not, given its dangerousness and social consequences, use child labour. Indeed, frequent poisonings by pesticides or nicotine hinder children's right to the best possible health. In addition, the rights to education and leisure are compromised when children exhaust themselves working on plantations, lending a hand to their over-indebted families[2]. The figure 16 should however be taken with caution and considered as an underestimation of the real number of countries hosting this practice with serious health and social consequences. Indeed, although the United States today employs children as young as 12 years old in this agricultural sector, the country is however not listed among the 16 countries in this report.[3].
The tobacco industry: between discourse and financial interest
On the subject of child employment in tobacco plantations, the major tobacco companies claim to be doing everything they can to end the exploitation of children and support their retention in the school system. However, in fact, between 2000 and 2013, while the employability rate of children in tobacco plantations has indeed decreased in Turkey, the United States, and Brazil, it has increased in India and Zimbabwe.[4]. At first glance, the exploitation of children therefore seems to be getting worse in proportion to the expansion of tobacco crops on the Asian and African continents. The reality is not disappointing, it is revolting. The exploitation of children in the tobacco sector is the product of an impasse created by the tobacco industry itself. Thus, it will not stop as long as multinationals continue to pay farmers with junk, paying tobacco leaves at prices so low that the profits obtained do not allow them to survive or invest in future crops while debts continue to accumulate year after year. The exploitation of children will continue as long as the tobacco world continues to slowly kill the consumers of its products with the sole aim of making ever more profits.
[1] https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/ListofGoods.pdf
[3] https://www.unfairtobacco.org/en/child-labour-in-tobacco-growing/
[4] https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/27/how-we-can-fight-child-labour-tobacco-industry
