ASSESSMENT OF CHILD LABOUR AND ITS RELATED DANGERS AND HAZARDS ON CHILDREN IN COCOA PRODUCING COMMUNITIES IN MALEMA CHIEFDOM, EASTERN SIERRA LEONE

Poverty is real and is found in every community of the world. It is considered to be the most important cause of child labour both in rural and urban communities. Child labour deprives children of many opportunities ranging from schooling to acquisition of functional technical/vocational skills. Children grow as unskilled workers on cocoa farms and earn low wages in adulthood and therefore poverty and other hazards persist on them entangling them in the vicious cycle of poverty. Child labour trap is evident in cocoa communities in Malema Chiefdom as children as young as 9 years (boys & girls) were involved in all activities on cocoa farms. It was discovered that child labour on cocoa farms in the selected communities was high although some respondents decided to take indecisive posture because they were afraid of being prosecuted. Activities such as nursing of cocoa seedlings, transplanting, under brushing were engaged in by children which were not commensurate to their ages. Various dangers and hazards encountered by children working in the cocoa farms ranged from minor/severe wounds from machetes, chisels, etc. to headache, pains on the neck and sometimes deformities from carrying heavy loads. With all the enforcement of ILO Conventions on the Rights of Children and Elimination of all forms of Child Labour coupled with national laws on child rights and against child labour, the practice is still carried out on cocoa farms.