Abstract:
Child labour is one of the major socio-economic issues in the global world. Children have historically been a
part of the labour force, especially with advent of industrialization. There are considerable efforts by the ILO for
addressing this issue. Tanzania also has been concerned with this situation by ratifying ILO conventions
pertaining to children and young people. Primary data were collected through face to-face interviews,
observations and self-administered questionnaires. Fifty children and 30 key informants were interviewed, a
Cross-sectional and descriptive design were applied; respondent were selected from two bus stands in the
Municipality. Snow balling method used to ensure the possibility of getting necessary information. Also
purposive sampling was used to collect information from key informants. The study revealed that, majority of
children engage in child labour live with their parents and participate in business because they have been sent
by their parents. Most of them come from poor families who are small scale farmers. They also come from
families with low education level of which they do not see the significance of education to their children.
Children run small business because of household poverty, lack of parental care and illiteracy. There are efforts
done by different actors to abolish child labour but there some challenges they face like lack of cooperation, lack
of awareness and commitment of parents. Therefore parents, Government and Other stakeholders should work
together and understand child's right and responsibilities to the children.
