The prevalence of child labour on Zimbabwe's tobacco farms is under the spotlight, after a Human Rights Watch report released this week highlighted child labour and human rights abuses on farms in four tobacco-growing provinces.
The research, conducted over a year by HRW, which canvassed the views of 125 people, found that in addition to child labour, workers were also pressured to "work excessively long hours" without compensation and experienced "long delays in receiving their wages, which sometimes ran into weeks and months".
Multinational companies which buy tobacco from Zimbabwe - British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Brands - were also named for buying tobacco grown from child labour in Zimbabwe.
The multinational companies said "they had policies which prohibited child labour, and tried to protect the health and safety of workers in their supply chain".
Margaret Wurth, a child researcher at HRW and co-author of the report entitled A Bitter Harvest, said there were "real gaps" in how these policies were "being implemented in the field, in the supply chain and on the small-scale farms".She added: "Companies sourcing tobacco from Zimbabwe should ensure that they are not buying a crop produced by child workers sacrificing their health and education."
The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, the industry regulator, said the report "surprised" and "shocked" buyers. It intimated that the report could "dent" this year's selling season, which opened two weeks ago.
Zimbabwe is expected to earn about $600-million in revenue from the sale of nearly 200million kilograms of tobacco. Zimbabwe is the world's sixth-largest tobacco producer in the world, and the nearly $1-billion industry is a critical revenue earner.An official at the TIMB said buyers of the crop were alarmed by the report's findings.
South Africa and China buy half of all the tobacco produced in Zimbabwe.
Isheunesu Moyo, a spokesman for the TIMB, said the report appeared to be "desk-top research" and had "a small sample size".
About 123,000 growers are registered with the TIMB. The HRW report canvassed only 125 people for its findings. "Wherever we encounter child labour, it is of concern to us as the TIMB. We are committed to fight child labour," Moyo said.
"Anyone under the age of 18 cannot be contracted as a farmer, and anyone under 16 years of age cannot register with us. One case of child labour worries us, and our buyers want their tobacco grown in a sustainable manner."Moyo said the regulator was also engaged in awareness and education programmes for its members on how to protect themselves when handling pesticides.
An official in the ministry of labour and social welfare said they had "noted" the report's findings, but would not comment.
Unicef, the UN arm that focuses on children, said child labour was a "scourge" and it estimated that 10% of children aged between five to 14 years in Zimbabwe were involved in economic activities, based on the findings of a 2011 study.
The HRW report said that children as young as 11 were working on tobacco farms, often in hazardous conditions, to earn school fees or supplement the family income.
Workers were exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides, and suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning, such as nausea.A 12-year-old girl, identified as Mercy, described how she fell ill after handling an unnamed pesticide: "We carry the knapsack and start to spray. I feel like vomiting because the chemical smells very bad."
A teacher said his pupils sometimes missed class. "From the onset of the tobacco-growing season these children start being absent," said the teacher, named only as Joseph, from Mashonaland West.
Davidzo, a 15-year-old in Mashonaland Central, missed 15 days of class to work in tobacco farming. When he returned to school, he was punished by his teachers. "I was beaten ... I was so disappointed ... I thought I was doing good for myself."
An industry player who spoke on condition of anonymity this week said Zimbabwe's tobacco industry had changed over the past six years, and had moved away from the auction to a contract system - which reduced the prevalence of child labour.
"There is no room [for] child labour, as the contract system enforces accountability."..