Ecological aspects shaping child labour in Tanzania's artisanal and small-scale gold mines: A qualitative inquiry

Abstract

Background

This study describes factors promoting child labour in small-scale gold mines in rural Tanzania, a pernicious problem despite the country's adoption of laws and regulations intended to curb it.

Methods

Employing a phenomenological design, we collected qualitative data using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to describe factors promoting children's engagement in small-scale gold mining activities in three districts in Tanzania. Data analysis applied constructs from the ecological system theory.

Results

Child labour was reported to be common in the small-scale gold mines and abject household poverty was reported as the main factor pushing children to work in the mines because of their respective households’ inability to provide for their basic needs. Other underlying factors stated included divorce and family disintegration and limited diversification of income-earning activities. The migratory nature of artisanal mining led some miner parents to not prioritize the education of their children. Furthermore, peer pressure and parental influence, especially of mothers, promoted entry into mining or reinforced its continuation. Early socialisation of children as future miners and lack of perspective and societal expectations of other life trajectories contributed to persistent child labour within mining communities. At the government level, the study participants mentioned poor reinforcement of mining regulations as another factor that legitimised child labour in the mines.

Conclusion

Since factors promoting child labour in small-scale gold mines are multifaceted, efforts for its elimination require a multi-layered approach aimed at addressing the root-causes at the micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-level systems.

1. Introduction

Child labour is a global social problem. Global estimates show that 151.6 million children aged 5–17 years are child labourers, with 73 million engaged in hazardous work, hence putting their health, safety and moral development at risk [1]. Africa has the highest prevalence of child labour with 1 in 5 children involved in the malpractice [1]. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labour as any work that deprives children of their childhood, and robs them of their potential and dignity, in addition to harming their physical, mental and social well-being [2].

In mining, child labour is widespread, particularly in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) across Sub-Saharan Africa [3]. ASM entails the use of simple tools and techniques, mainly comprising labour-intensive extraction, transportation, processing and trading of minerals [4]. In short, it involves non-use of mechanised mining equipment. Mining is a significant industry in Tanzania [5,6] and provides a primary source of income for many households [7,8]. Over 600,000 Tanzanians are engaged in mining and quarrying. The majority are informal labourers, with over 30,000 being children aged 5–17 years [9]. Child labour is cheaper than adult labour for ASM and vulnerable children are less able to demand their rights. In fact, one study found that children are made to believe that the police cannot arrest them because they are children [6]. Children failing to enrol into school and/or continue with studies after completing primary school are an significant group at risk of engaging in child labour [10]. The welfare of these children has been compromised by the inter-linkage between the need to meet their basic needs and that of fulfilling the needs of their employers’ hunt for super profit, which is the fundamental motivating factor for artisanal and the small-scale miners [11].

Gold mining in particular is tremendously dangerous work for children [3,11,12] and is therefore considered one of the ‘worst forms of child labour’ [13]. Yet, there are tens of thousands of children in small-scale gold mines of Africa, Asia and South America. Though most of the children reportedly work willingly, evidence abounds that children are nudged into mining activities by parents, who order them to do so [12] to boost low family incomes.

Children work both on the surface and underground, risking death caused by explosions, rock falls, and tunnel collapses. They also breathe dust-filled air and sometimes toxic gases. Moreover, they ferry large sacks of gold ore, crush and grind the ore and are exposed to mercury intoxication during amalgamation of gold [8]. This child labour also impairs children's psychological development and educational attainment [12].

Tanzania ratified multiple international conventions and instituted the legal framework on children's rights and child labour. The enacted laws and Acts include: the Law of the Child Act 2009, the Employment and Labour Relations Act 2004, and the Mining Regulations Act 2018. This indicates the country's willingness to curb child labour. Under the Tanzanian labour law, the minimum employment age for the mines is 18 years. Thus, though the country's legal framework is in line with international standards prohibiting the engagement of children in hazardous work such as mining, the problem of child labour in small-scale gold mines persists in Tanzania. This has created the need to better understand the reasons behind the seemingly intractable problem of children working in artisanal gold mines.

As child labour is a multi-faceted problem, this paper draws on the ecological system theory which posits that human behaviour is a product of complex interactions that take place on multiple system levels surrounding the individual. The levels include the micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chrono-systems [14] and the systems interact and relate to each other, causing the resultant influence on behaviour to occur both within and between the system directions in shaping individual practices [14] such as child labour. The ecological theory exposes the potential bearing on individual behaviour of the relations and interactions with and within each system level. The theory facilitated our study to simultaneously examine attributable factors for child labour at different system levels. The current study present results from a formative qualitative assessment study [15] that aimed to inform program design and the development of a service model capable of improving health and social services for children and adolescents working in small-scale gold mines. Results from the other aspects of the formative assessment will be presented separately.

2. Materials and methods

We present material and methods specifically for this study, more details about the study and its methodological rigour can be obtained from the published formative assessment report by Metta et al. [15].

2.1. Study sites

The study was carried out in three Tanzanian districts of Bukombe, Chunya and Songwe. According to the Tanzanian 2012 National Population Census [16], Bukombe district in Geita region had a population of 224,542 and Chunya district in Mbeya region had 290,478. By the time of the national census, Songwe district was part of Chunya, but became an administratively autonomous district in 2016 and part of the newly created Songwe Region. All three districts have strong rural characteristics, with gold mining as one of the main economic activities. Historically, by the mid-1920s, the study districts were chief sources of gold in the country [10]. Discoveries of new gold sites in the districts continue attracting people from neighbouring districts and other parts of the country. Other economic activities include farming, fishing, bee-keeping and animal husbandry. Though both large-scale mechanised mining and ASM exist in the study areas, the focus of our study was on the latter, as ASMs are harder to regulate and –according to district officials had high concentrations of child labourers. During the data collecting period, there were 800 confirmed small-scale miners in Chunya and Songwe districts, and 1200 in Bukombe.

2.2. Study design

The study applied a phenomenological design using focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) as qualitative data collection methods. Qualitative data collection methods are well versed to “explore the behaviour, feelings and experiences of people and what lies at the core of their life” [17]. It aims at getting “a detailed understanding of human behaviour, emotions, attitudes and experiences” [18] as well as the context shaping such experiences. Phenomenological studies are well known for their ability to describe the essence of a phenomenon by exploring it from the perspectives of those who have experienced it and describing the meaning of this experience both in terms of what was experienced and how it was experienced [19]. This approach made it easy for participants to freely disclose their experiences, thoughts and feelings about child labour and it ensured the concepts, beliefs, experiences, ideas, and suggestions are collected from the study sites that would not have been possible to achieve using other methodological approaches. Triangulation of data collection methods allowed for the observation of similarities and differences among and across different levels of the informants and among the districts.

2.3. Recruitment of study participants

The study population included child miners, child miner parents, mine owners, community leaders, influential people, teachers, and district leaders. For IDIs, the snowball sampling method was used to enrol child miners to share their perspectives regarding aspects shaping engagement in mining activities. The community leaders helped the research team to arrange the initial interaction with the child. The child then was explained about the study and its specific aims in detail. After gaining trust and building rapport, the child was requested to introduce the researcher to his/her caregiver to obtain consent and thereafter assent was taken from the child before actual involvement in discussions. After the discussion, the child was asked to link the researcher to his/her peers engaged and involved in activities associated with mining works. The procedure was the same until a saturation point was reached. Using the child's social network and the good rapport established enabled sustained accessibility of the child miners to the study.

Purposive sampling was used to recruit FGDs, and participants of the other IDIs. The FGD discussants were purposefully recruited among the members of the corresponding mining communities with the support of the village leader. The inclusion criteria included people who are conversant with the mining sites and have stayed in the setting for not less than five years before the study. This duration was considered long enough for accumulated familiarity and understanding of the factors informing children's engagement in mining activities.

Key informant participants for the IDIs were recruited in discussion with the FGD discussants, who proposed two swaying individuals that are trusted to have depth understanding of and were familiar with the setting, its physiognomies, and the ongoing engagement of children in mining related activities. The names of the proposed individuals were communicated to the local leaders, who facilitated the research team to reach them. Other IDI participants were purposefully recruited based on their status in the community: mine owners, school teachers, community leaders and miner parents.

2.4. Data collection team

The data was collected by a team of four research assistants and the first author. The team was trained for three days and building on the members' previous fieldwork experiences the training only focused on the specific characteristics of the current study such as orientation to the study objectives and the tools for collecting data; participant recruitment processes, ethical issues in conducting research in general and specifically with vulnerable children; the process to obtaining informed consent and assent; how to ensure privacy and confidentiality of both research participants and research data, how to manage the risk of harm to participants; what to do if concerned that the child is experiencing or is at risk of abuse; and child protection codes of conduct. All data collection team members signed a statement of commitment and a confidentiality agreement. Immediately after the training the team pre-tested the data collection tools and the findings from the pre-test were used to finetune the final tools, specifically the wording, that was used in the study.

3. Data collection techniques

3.1. In-depth interviews

IDIs were conducted with child miners [14], parents of child miners [8], district officials (including one district education officer, one district AIDS coordinator, and three district social welfare officers); mine owners [8], community leaders [6], school teachers [3] and influential people [4]. A total of 48 IDIs were conducted with different individuals to gain insights into their opinions, views and understanding about children working in the mines. The IDIs generated in-depth information on the social context and nature of child labour in the mines.

3.2. Focus group discussions

Six FGDs comprising 8–12 community members were carried out. A total of 63 participants participated in the group discussions. The FGDs were conducted discretely for men and women using a focus group discussion guide to assess the broader general norms in the community as well as views and opinions on why children engaged in mining activities across the sites. The information generated from the first FGDs was enriched in the subsequent FGDs across sites and aspects that needed further exploration was considered. Data saturation was achieved at the fifths FGD, however, one additional FGD was conducted to confirm that there were no new ideas generated.

Data collection activities in all IDIs and FGDs were conducted using the local language, Kiswahili, that is common and familiar to both the data collection team and the study participants. Consent was sought from all participants before their actual engagement in the study and it included seeking permission to record the discussions and the interviews. During the interview and discussion, detailed notes were captured. Study participants were asked to use pseudonyms rather than their real names to protect their identities.

3.3. Data management and analysis

The audio files were transcribed verbatim into electronic MS Word documents within 48 h after being generated. This allowed for easy follow-up and clarification of issues as they emerged during data collection. The Kiswahili documents were then checked for quality against the audio files by the first author before the starting of the actual data analysis.

Data analysis was a continuous process, and the qualitative data management software, NVivo 9 (QSR International Pty Ltd, Australia) was used. The analysis process was done at two levels. The first level of analysis involved developing inductive and deductive codes and writing detailed descriptions. Both the inductive and the deductive codes were developed by the first author. The codes were shared and discussed among the first and the last author, and any discrepancies were reconciled between the two. The second level of analysis involved categorizing the codes into themes and family codes. This process continued until no additional themes or categories emerged. The family codes were then linked to the concepts of ecological theory. Fig. 1 gives an example of how the codes were categorized into themes as well as how the family codes were linked to conceptual/theoretical concepts.

Fig. 1.

An example of how codes were categorized into themes and how family codes were linked to the theoretical concepts.

The results were shared with caregivers in the mining villages and ward development committee members through meetings as a validation process, and community members had opportunity to ask for clarification or provide additional opinions.

4. Ethical approval

The Ifakara Health Institute Institutional Review Board approved the study (IHI/IRB/No:001–2017) and the Tanzanian National Medical Research Co-ordinating Committee of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) (NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol.IX/2483. All study participants were thoroughly informed about the study, their right to end the interview at any time, the estimated length of the discussions and interviews, and the confidentiality of the information shared. Each study participant provided written informed consent before participation in the interviews and/or focus group discussion. Illiterate participants gave a thumbprint in the presence of an independent witness, who signed to verify the informed consent. Consent for child or adolescent participants was sought through their parents or guardians who had the duty of caring for the child. In the absence of a parent or legal guardian, a government official or community leader in the child's area of residence was requested to provide consent on behalf of the parents/guardians. In addition to parents'/guardians' approval, children and adolescents themselves were asked for a written assent. However, the child's wishes were paramount and it was made clear to all participating children before consenting that their decisions to take part in the study or not is the final decision and it will not affect them in any way. To ensure anonymity of the study participants, all the data and audio recordings were de-identified from the outset with a unique identifier, and only their opinions are presented.

5. Findings

Children working in the mines were not a homogenous group rather had varying characteristics. They were both girls and boys who included orphaned children, children from child-headed households and/or single parent households as well as children from families with both parents. Some had graduated from primary school, others had dropped out from primary or secondary school, were truants or had never been to school, see Table 1. These child miners originated from the communities within the mine sites or came from neighbouring communities and other parts of the country. The majority of these children reportedly entered mine sites in search of a job to earn an income. Other child miners went to the mines accompanied by their miner parents and stayed on.

Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants.

S/N	Unique Code	Sex	Age	Education level		Livelihood activities
Child Minersrowhead
1	IDICMB1	Boy	17	Std VII		Mining
2	IDICMB2	Boy	18	Std V		Mining
3	IDICMB3	Girl	14	Std 0		Mining
4	IDICMB4	Girl	13	Std V1		Mining
5	IDICMB5	Girl	18	Form 1		Mining
6	IDICMC1	Boy	18	Std V		Mining
7	IDICMC2	Boy	14	Std VII		Mining
8	IDICMC3	Girl	16	Std VI		Mining
9	DICMC4	Boy	12	Std III		Mining
10	IDICMC5	Girl	17	Std VII		Mining
11	IDICMS1	Boy	15	Std 0		Mining
12	IDICMS2	Boy	14	Std V		Mining
13	IDICMS13	Girl	18	Std IV		Mining
14	IDICMS14	Boy	17	Std Form II		Mining
Parents/caregivers of the child minersrowhead
1	IDIMPB1	Male	45	Form II		Mining
2	IDIMPB2	Female	45	Std VII		Mining
3	IDIMPB3	Female	40	Std VII		Faming
4	IDIMPC1	Male	45	Std VII		Mining/Farming
5	IDIMPC2	Female	40	Form II		Mining
6	IDIMPC3	Female	54	Std IV		Mining
7	IDIMPS1	Female	48	Std VII		Farming
8	IDIMPS2	Male	47	Std VII		Mining/Farming
District officialsrowhead
1	IDIDACB1	Female	47	Bachelor degree		HIV/AIDs Coordinator
2	IDIEDUB2	Male	46	Bachelor		Education officer
3	IDICDOC1	Male	56	Bachelor degree		Social Welfare Officer
4	IDISWOC2	Female	28	Bachelor degree		Social Welfare Officer
5	IDICDOS5	Male	41	Bachelor degree		Social Welfare Officer
Mine ownersrowhead
1	IDIM0B1	Male	47	Form 2	Mining
2	IDIM0B2	Female	44	Std VII	Mining
3	IDIM0B3	Male	40	Std VII	Faming
4	IDIM0C1	Male	43	Std VII	Mining/Farming
5	IDIM0C2	Female	40	Form II	Mining
6	IDIM0C3	Male	54	Std IV	Mining
7	IDIM0S1	Female	48	Std VII	Farming
8	IDIM0S2	Male	45	Std VII	Farming/mining
Community leadersrowhead
1	IDIVLB1	Female	49	Std VII		Ward Education Officer
2	IDIVLB2	Female	48	Form IV		Village Education Officer
3	IDIVLC1	Male	46	Bachelor degree		Ward Education Officer
4	IDIVLC2	Male	46	Bachelor degree		Council Education officer
5	IDIVLS1	Male	41	Bachelor degree		Council Education Officer
6	IDIVLS2	Female	48	Std VII		Community health care worker
School teachersrowhead
1	IDITB1	Female	38	Form IV		School teacher
2	IDITC2	Male	43	Bachelor degree		School teacher
3	IDITS3	Male	31	Form i4		School teacher
1	KIIIFB1	Male	52	Std 7		Mining
Influential peoplerowhead
2	KIIIFB2	Male	65	Std 7		Farming
3	KIIIFC3	Female	54	Std 7		Farming/mining
4	KIIIFS4	Male	40	Std 7		Petty trading
Focus group discussion participantsrowhead
1	BKFGDM	Men	37–72	Std 4 -Form 2		Mining/Faming
2	BKFGDF	Women	31–60	Std 0 – Std 7		Mining/Farming
3	CITFGDM	Men	21–56	Std 7 – Form 4		Mining/Farming
4	CITFGDF	Women	25–37	Std 7 – Form 2		Mining/Farming
5	SAFGDM	Men	24–32	Std 7 – Form 2		Petty trading/mining
6	SAFGDF	Women	18–34	Std 6 – Form 3		Petty trading/mining

Factors shaping child labour in the mines are categorized under four themes as outlined in the ecological model, i.e. individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. This model was used because of its ability to facilitate in-depth understanding of a range of factors that put children at risk of child labour in artisanal and small-scale gold mines. At the first level, factors at personal and individual context that inform child labour are identified. The second level shows the relations that shape the children's decision to engage in mining activities. At the third level the role played by different institutions in shaping child labour is described and the final level identifies the broader factors at societal level that influence children to look for work in the mines. These factors are further grouped into micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-systems, the constructs of the Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System Theory of Development [14]. Fig. 2 depicts factors at different ecological system levels and their interlinkages in sharping children's engagement in mining work. The overlapping rings in the figure indicate how factors pushing children to mining activities at one level influence factors at another level.

Fig. 2.

Ecological Systems Theory on child labour in small-scale gold mines. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

5.1. The micro-system

The interactions between the child and his/her micro environment were found to play a critical role in driving children into mining activities due to poverty, divorce and family disintegration.

5.2. Household poverty

Household poverty was reported in all IDIs and FGDs as a major underlying cause of child labour in the mines. Across the sites it was explained on how the failure of the households to provide children with food and other basic needs triggered their decision to engage in mining to earn a living, as the following testimony illustrates:

“I thought I … go and work to assist them [parents] as they did not have enough … and frequently at home we were going to bed on empty stomach” (13 years old, adolescent girl miner).

The same opinion was expressed by mine owners and community leaders:

“Most of these children are coming from destitute families … they have no choice … they are working to earn a living” (45 years old, male mine owner).

“Children engage in mining activities due to economic and life hardship, it is the prevailing household poverty that pushes them away from home; they have to work to earn money and live their life” (46 years old, male community leader)

Extreme poverty also kept children working in the mines:

I decided to come and do this work … because of poverty. We are poor, my father is sick, and I also live with my grandmother and my younger siblings. There is nobody who can assist the family, they rely on me. I had to search for money for family needs that includes also treatment for my father … He is epileptic (17 years old, adolescent boy miner)

In addition, the findings show that children dropped out of school because of their parents’ inability to support them, finally driving them into mining at a tender age:

“… Parents fail to support their children, leaving them to care for themselves as a result they drop out of school and work to supplement family income” (48 years old, female community leader).

This view was affirmed by school teachers during the interviews, who attested that most of the miners were pupils who come from poor households:

“… children … when they go back home [from the school] they find no food, so they decide to go to the mines at least to find some money to buy food” (43 years old, male school teacher).

A similar pattern of responses emerged among the child miners in all the three districts. For example, one of them said:

“After coming back from school at 14:00 hours I come down here [in the mines] to work, at 19:00 pm I go home and I start doing my school work until 23:00 pm then I sleep … I get tired, sometimes I can’t work on my assignments, and some days I just don’t go to school because I find myself too tired but this is life, I have to work and get some money to help myself and also my mother …” (15 years old, adolescent boy miner)

It is apparent that there was consensus across the sites that abject poverty among rural folks was a primary cause of child labour and school drop-out.

5.3. Divorce and family disintegration

The study also found that most of the families and households in the mines were either child- or single parent-headed families due to divorces or dysfunctional marriages. Children from such homes barely received support to meet their everyday needs and upkeep. The study participants described this situation as normal in the mining communities, which inevitably forced many children into the hazardous mining child labour:

My parents got divorced. I remained with my mother together with my two sisters. We had to go and live with my grandmother but we did not stay long. We moved here. I started my primary school here. My mother had a business of selling charcoal and rice cakes and this enabled my schooling till when I reached Standard V [age 12 years]. As you know, sometimes business can go awry and this is what happened to us. Sometimes, we went to bed without eating anything. I couldn’t continue with school. I saw my mother struggling a lot and sometimes she would come back home empty-handed. I decided to work to support her and my sisters (18 years old, adolescent boy miner).

A similar observation emerged during the discussion with child miners’ parents:

I was left alone with five children … he [the husband] left for new gold discoveries at Itumbi area and he never came back … our living condition worsened … children see how difficult the life is ….. Sometimes, we don’t even have enough to eat … we all go there and whatever we earn helps (40 years old, female miner parent).

It was also clear during the key informant interviews that gold depletion at mine sites forced men to migrate to new sites, leaving their families behind. At the new mining site, many of them establish new relations, neglecting the wives and children from their previous marriage:

When there is little production of gold … the majority of men in the mining areas migrate to places with new gold ore discoveries … there they enter into new marital liaisons and forget everything about the wife and the children they left behind (40 years old, male influential person).

5.4. The meso-system

At the meso-system level, it was observed that the child's individual micro-systems do not function independently; they are interconnected and influence one another. Consequently, the interactions within and between the microsystems had an indirect impact on the child's decision to become a miner. In essence, a system of micro-systems involves the linkages between, for example, household poverty, peer group pressure and/or schooling.

5.5. Poverty and its linkage to child labour

The child's interactions in one micro-system (e.g. the household) affect his/her interactions in another microsystem (e.g. the school). A domino effect occurs whereby household poverty contributes to school drop-outs, which in turn prompts the majority of the children to engage in child labour, hence the ‘cause of the cause’.

All study participants mentioned that the majority of the children working in the mines were there as a result of poverty, or were not sent to school or failed to attend school regularly due to poverty in their household. Overall, the poverty situation that deprived the child of the much-needed support was found to hamper their educational development. In fact, some miner parents deliberately discouraged their children to perform well in school for fear that they would not be able to support them financially when they were selected to join secondary schools. For example, one child miner reported how his father warned him to not perform well in his studies as follows:

“He said to me … If I hear that you are performing better in school [studies] you will know who I am, I don’t have money to send you to secondary school” (14 years old, adolescent boy miner).

This aspect was also noted during the discussion with an adolescent girl who said the following:

“My mother told me that … you already know how to read and write, it is enough … now you need to work and earn money to support your siblings ….no need to continue wasting your time because there is no way you will go to secondary school, after all too much schooling is not a guarantee of a good life” (16 years old, adolescent girl miner)

Similarly, during FGDs with the women some parents admitted to encouraging their children to work. One of them explained having told her child:

“I don’t have enough money to keep you in a secondary school for four years …. Moreover, failing in school is not failing in life …. you cannot know where your luck lies … you may get your fortune in the mines” (Women FGD1).

The district informants and school teachers also reported that the majority of the miner parents did neither take time to help their children with their reading nor their homework assignments, or provide them with guidance in their studies. They are often away from home for a long time such that their children are left largely on their own with the freedom to decide to work in the mines without any inhibitions. Lack of time for adequate parenting was also expressed by some parents during the FGDs as detailed below:

“You find a parent always busy looking for gold … doesn’t care to know how children are faring. From morning till evening, he is in the mines and when he is back home in the evening, he is in a hurry to go for drinking … when he comes back he finds the children are already asleep …. the next morning, he wakes up again rushing to the mines … this is how life goes on, they don’t have time to spend with their children … some parents don’t even know what happens with their children including the activities they are engaged in, like mining-related activities … (Women FGD3).

5.6. Mobility and child labour

The mobile nature of life in the mining communities makes it difficult for children to attend and stay in school. Families venture into new mining sites, most of them located in hard-to-reach areas where social services such as schools, health facilities and infrastructure are limited, making it difficult for them to make long-term commitments such as enrolling their children in school:

“You find some of the miners moving from one mine to another hoping one day they will become fortunate … they do not have permanent settlements … this disrupts their family development as well as that of their children … and even if they would wish to get their children to school, there are no schools in the bush (Men FGD4).

5.7. Peer pressure

Interactions between poor children and their peers who are perceived as successful in life because of their engagement in mining activities also influences some children to get into mining. Both the IDIs and FGDs with school teachers, parents of the child miners and community members affirmed that in-school children and others in the community admired the material possessions of their young peers working in the mines. As a result, children from very poor households and those who understand that their parents cannot afford to provide them with everything aspire to join the ranks of child labourers in the mines:

“Sometimes the economic situation in some households is not that bad but because the child has seen his friends, say, a smart phone, good clothes and money to spend, he sees that fellow as being very successful and wishes to be like them. As such you find a child making a decision to also go and work in mines in order to earn his own money so that he becomes free to buy the things he wants like those of his peers” (41 years old, male community leader)

Similar observations were confirmed by one of the adolescent girls when detailing how she first entered the mines for work as follows:

“My friend had a very nice phone “touch screen”. She told me she bought it using the money she earned from ferrying gold ores to the crushes … I asked her if we could go together … she said it is okay and could introduce me to some of her bosses …..the next morning I followed her ….and since then I never went back to school “(18 years old, adolescent girl miner)

5.8. Parental influence

The FGDs and IDI participants cited miner parents, especially mothers, as responsible for indirectly grooming their children for mining work, by taking them with her to the mining site, as they could not afford a baby-sitter. While there, the older children watch over the younger ones at the mine site and get introduced to mining work. These circumstances psychologically prepare children at their tender age and orientate them towards mining work:

Some of these children you see today in the mines have been in such environment since they were very young … It is normal to see a woman with a baby on her back going to the mine sites with her older child accompanies her to watch over the baby. When the baby is asleep, the older child starts moving around looking for wasted stones that are suspected to have minerals. What the child finds also becomes a supplement to what the mother earns at the end of the day. As a result, when a child grows up it becomes difficult to stop them from engaging in such activities because they have been doing them with their parents. But also, because they knew that it is the only source of family income for their survival (49 years old, female community leader).

The findings further revealed that some parents actively or indirectly fuel child labour. They admire the improved lifestyles of their neighbours whose children are engaged in mining activities:

“Can’t you see your friend is working in the mines to support his family? Why don’t you also go … you can get a lot of money in the mines for us also to have a good life” (45 years old, male miner parent).

Another said,

“I do not have even any money today, let us all go there we may become lucky and get some gold that we can sell to get food” (Male FGD5).

According to the discussions with community leaders, the appreciation or praise that parents give their children earning money from mining-related activities motivates children to continue working in artisanal mines.

5.9. The exo-system

The social and physical environment in which children's social relations and contacts occur is another factor driving children's engagement in mining activities. The study findings revealed that the majority of residents were either working in the mines or had been miners at one point in their life. As such, mining was a normal activity. The findings further showed that most of the mining communities evolved as people migrated to the place in search of areas with more gold. The FGDs with community members noted that parents of child miners in the community did not find it inappropriate for their children to engage in mining activities because that was the path they had also followed. The same sentiments were shared by miner parents, community leaders and mine owners. The expressions that “children copy from their parents and what they see other members of the community doing” was a common reaction among the study participants in all the districts as the following testimony illustrates:

The majority of families in this community are involved in mining activities. So, children learn from their parents and start practicing slowly. They imitate what they see people doing in the community. It is also surprising that some parents do not question the whereabouts of their child. Other parents ask their children to go and help them with mining activities especially mothers. They do this without knowing that they are psychologically preparing their children to undertake the same activities in lives (40 years old, female mine owner).

To better understand the child miners in the study and their family context in relation to mining activities, child miners were asked to indicate who else in their families were engaged in mining activities. The majority of child miners had at least one family member either currently engaged in mining work or who had done so previously. Children with parents and/or relatives presently engaged in mining activities either worked together in the same mines or had relatives working in mines found in other communities. On the other hand, some parents of miner children across the sites expressed dissatisfaction with children working in mining areas, saying that mining work was too tough for a child and that the mining environment and culture of the miners are not favourable for children:

“The mining environment is too tough for a child and the culture of the miners and their living conditions is not something that you would love to see your child exposed to” (40 years old, female miner parent).

5.10. The macro-system

The macro-system aspects shaping child labour in the mining communities refers to the broader community factors that help to create an environment favourable to the engagement of children in mining activities. Such aspects include social and contextual factors inherent in mining communities, poor reinforcement of mining regulations and guidelines and the limited diversification in income generating activities in the settings.

5.11. Social and contextual factors

Across the sites and among the study participants, the social context and the environment in which children are raised were recounted as critical in shaping the children's decision to engage in mining work. FGD participants reported that children who are not in school engaged in the mining activities to earn money to support themselves and the family in general as a matter of societal expectation. The participants generally regarded this engagement as a way of orienting children to productive practices:

“If a child is not going to school, they cannot just stay at home … what will they be doing at home? Instead of letting them stay and learn bad behaviours, it is better for them to find activities to do in the mines to earn some money to support themselves and the family” (Men FGD4).

The children's relationships and interconnections in such an environment were mentioned to encourage their decisions to engage in mining activities believing that they can prosper through them.

Some district officials were of the opinion that alcoholism was also common among miners. However, this condition among some parents resulted in them neglecting their household responsibilities, failing to care for their children, and forcing their children to find a job to survive.

5.12. Poor reinforcement of regulations

Poor enforcement of mining regulations and guidelines that prohibit child labour in mining areas was cited as a contributory factor to persisting child labour. Community leaders reported that across the sites there are by-laws restricting mine owners from engaging children aged below 18 years in mining work. Moreover, it was observed that there were sign-posts across the mining sites with inscriptions: “It is strictly prohibited for children and pregnant women to enter the site”. In fact, the mining rules and regulations state clearly what punitive measures are to be taken against miners found employing children and pregnant women, including confiscating their mining licenses. However, the study participants reported that these laws were not enforced and children continued working in mining unabated as a result.

When mine owners were asked to explain why they engaged children in their mining sites none of them directly confirmed on record doing so. However, they blamed parents for introducing their children to mining work ′. For example, when mothers get opportunity to work in mines they take their children to assist them. On the other hand, some mine owners said that engaging children in mine work was done out of sympathy as they wanted to help them to get food and school necessities. In attesting to this, one mine owner reported the following:

“At times you can find a child struggling even to get food, they are just there, you decide to help by offering them small jobs so that you can give them food” (40 years old, male mine owner).

Another said:

“Sometimes, we give them work to do but it is just to help them to get their basic needs such as food, clothing and school requirements” (54 years old, male mine owner).

In other words, child labour among artisanal miners is a complex issue complicated further by a range of socio-economic intertwined problems.

5.13. Limited diversification in income generating activities

Among the mining communities, community members reported having limited opportunities to engage in different income generating activities. Community members who participated in the FGDs said that household poverty in the study sites resulted from the unpredictable nature of household income sources as only small-scale mining activities were the sole source of income in mining areas. Despite these areas being endowed with fertile land, agricultural and farming activities are not prioritised in these settings and sporadically occur only on small-scale. In all the FGDs, participants mentioned unreliable rainfall, frequent droughts, inflation of farm inputs and the lack of a reliable market for agricultural produce as some of the challenges that frustrated efforts to engage in farming activities:

“Farming activities are not common here …. there are so many challenges and the yields depend on whether it rains or not … and we have to wait for a long period of time before seeing the output … if you are lucky and get a good harvest you face another problem of storage, and the market is not even guaranteed” (Women FGD2).

Little priority accorded to agriculture was exacerbated by the belief that more income can be accrued from mining activities within a short time than from farming activities, which offered no guarantee and depended on multiple factors for success. The study participants reported that their over-dependence on mining activities made many of the households in the area to suffer economically, especially when gold finds ceased due to depletion. Children are the main victims of lack of support and sustenance.

6. Discussion

This qualitative study was done to understand what contributes to child labour in artisanal and small-scale gold mines. The findings showed that factors leading engagement of children in small-scale gold mining activities are complex and ingrained in the multi-layered systems surrounding the child. To aide presentation and explanation of the study findings, these aspects have further been categorized into micro, meso, exo and macro system levels, under the Ecological System Theory [14].

At the micro-level, the study identified household poverty as the major factor fuelling child labour in the mines because many households fail to provide for their children's basic needs. Similar observations were reported in Mtwara region where many out-of-school children engaged in child labour after their parents/caretakers failed to pay for school fees and uniforms [20]. Though the Tanzania Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) stipulates that all children should access free primary education (Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, 2006), the reality on the ground was different; obstacles such as lack of school uniforms and food insecurity limited school attendance, as this study has established.

Some parents in the study even discouraged their children from performing well in school on the pretext of lacking school fees for further education. At times, they even threatened their children who performed well against their wishes “… you will know who I am. I do not have money to send you to secondary school …“. This creates cycle of un-educated parents failing to keep their children in school and thus creating a generation of un-educated children. These findings are substantiated by other studies where the impact of education among parents and its relationship to child labour have been documented [21] suggesting that the more parents become educated, particularly mothers, the less likely they will allow their children to engage in child labour [[21], [22], [23]].

According to UNICEF [24] one in six Tanzanian children live in households so poor that providing food is a real challenge. Food insecurity within the family has compounded the plight of children. Many households lost control over their children when they had no food to give them. Similar findings have also been reported by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) [25] explaining that the right to food is essential for children to avoid dire social consequences such as child labour, sexual exploitation and child slavery and, sometimes, recruitment of children soldiers.

At the meso-system level, the study observed that the child's individual micro-systems do not function independently, as a multiplicity of factors reinforce each other and push the child into mining child labour. These include the linkages between poverty, family disruption, mobility, peer and parental influence. Because of mine depletion and discovery of new places, men moved and abandoned their wives and children. A similar scenario was also found in Mtwara [20], where such movement fuelled divorce or led to dysfunctional marriages. As a result, children in child-led or mother-led households engage in child labour to earn a living. Some children are left with their grandparents who are poor and sickly infirm and thus fail to provide basic needs or guide the children properly. Some of these children end up engaging in a wide range of risky behaviours, including child labour as a source of income which is in line with what was reported in Kenya and South Africa [26].

Female-headed households were also reported to promote child labour due to the inability of these women to take care of children economically, particularly after being abandoned by their husbands or being divorced. Similar observations were made in Nigeria where more mothers than fathers were in favour of child labour as a coping mechanism to boost the family income [12]. Indeed, divorce or family disintegration pushed children out of school, and/or onto the streets, and they eventually started working in the mines to sustain their lives [27]. Apparently, both peer and parental influence promoted child labour in the mining areas because of the obsession with and often illusory notion of getting rich within a short time. A similar trend was observed in North Mara [6]. Likewise Bryceson and Jønsson [27] in their study found that peer influence contributed significantly to child labour in mining areas as they were attracted to the prospect of ending up with a better life which they witnessed from their fellow children already involved in child labour.

At the exo-system level, the majority of child miners had at least one family member either currently or formerly engaged in mining work. Children with parents and or relatives presently engaged in mining activities also either worked with them in the same mines or had relatives working in mines in other communities. As a result, the chain of child labourers in mines is linked to the context and culture in which children are socialised. Engaging children in child labour is seen as a way of orienting them to productive activities as was observed in other settings [28,29]. However, some miner parents disapproved of the practice of engaging children in child labour as they found mining work too tough and the hazardous physical and social environment not suitable for a child. Strategies for eliminating child labour in mines could build on this to help other parents adopt the same perspective.

At the macro system level, the study found that there are various laws that prohibit child labour but they are not enforced. It also found that employment of children in the mines is the norm and has been continuing with no punishment of mine owners responsible for it. The negligence and irresponsibility of some miner parents in caring for their children reported in the study deserves special attention. This is because the child's socialisation process starts at home and parents are important agents in the process, and they are role models and psychosocial mediators in moulding children's behaviour [30]. As such, lack of parental guidance can have a devastating emotional and psychological effect on the child [31]. Thus, reducing the problem of child labour in Tanzanian mines would require the strengthening of parental skills among mining communities. Studies to assess how miner parents could be facilitated to become more responsible in caring and supporting their children are recommended.

Many mining sites are located in remote areas with poor access to health services, infrastructure, schools, safe water, and transportation facilities, as was also reported by ILO [32]. The study found this to be one of the factors driving children out of school and into hazardous mining activities. Financial constraints and distance to school have also been observed from other settings as contributing to high school dropout rates [9]. Such an environment tempts children to remain in the mines as the only option available. Efforts to improve access to education in mining communities and encourage parents to support children could be one of the strategies for motivating enrolment and attendance in school among child miners. This should be coupled with measures to make the school environment attractive to students, for example, by establishing sports programmes and strengthening the school feeding program. Engaging parents, community leaders and mining stakeholders in school development committees in strengthening efforts against child labour could also be beneficial.

The study findings have indicated continued poverty at family level, peer and family influence, lack of training opportunities, inadequate parenting and family disintegration, and lack of responsive community structures as among the main factors putting children at the mercy of exploitative artisanal and small-scale gold miners. For example, peer influence, particularly of children with plenty of money generated from mining activities, was also seen to convince other children to join them to get rich as well. As such, children were lured into the mines and remained there with expectation of improving their lives quickly [27], which did not materialise in the majority of cases.

6.1. Strength and limitations

The study adopted a phenomenological research approach which allowed the gathering of detailed information on factors shaping children's engagement in child labor. This approach brought forth a detailed account of what is happening in small-scale mines and the lived experiences of child laborers. The application of the ecological system theory enabled in-depth understanding and description of the complex interactions at multiple system levels that put children at risk of engaging in child labor in artisanal and small-scale gold mines. The inclusion of different groups of people enabled the study to obtain a comprehensive description of child labor in the mine phenomenon and to test the validity of the study findings through the convergence of information from different sources.

However, the study was not free of limitations; the fact that it engaged a small group of people purposefully selected in specific settings, the findings should be viewed as contextual and their generalization should be limited to settings of similar characteristics.

Nevertheless, the study findings provide valuable insights into the factors fuelling children's engagement in artisanal and small-scale gold mining undertakings. This is important, as it can help to inform policy decisions, as well as the design and implementation of interventions aimed at eliminating child labour and its related consequences.

7. Conclusion

Overall, the factors inducing child labour in small-scale gold mines are so complex and multi-faceted in nature that efforts aimed to eliminate child labour require a multi-layered approach to address the root-causes of the problem. Initiatives targeting different levels such as micro-, meso-, exo- and micro-systems could yield fruitful results. These multi-pronged measures could include household poverty elimination strategies, the promotion of positive parenting skills, emphasizing the need to enrol children in school and ensure their attendance and school completion to members in mining communities. They also need to be educated on both short and long-term effects of child labour in mines. Furthermore, initiatives should be put in place to provide opportunities for alternative sources of income for both parents and out-of-school adolescents. Also, mechanisms for reinforcing the implementation of existing policies and by-laws against child labour in small-scale gold mines should be strengthened. In the absence of such measures, the seemingly intractable problem of children engaging in hazardous child labour in Tanzania's artisanal mining areas will continue unabated.

Author contribution statement

Emmy Metta; Eveline Geubbels: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper. Ramadhani Abdul; Alison Koler: Conceived and designed the experiments; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This work was supported by the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) [AID-621-A-16-00001].

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Declaration of interest's statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.