As it is the case in most third world countries where child labour is confined to the agricultural sector, the same situation obtains in Botswana.
Even without statistics to explain the magnitude of the problem in Botswana, there is evidence on the ground to suggest that child labour is rampant particularly in rural Botswana.
Poverty and orphans that have come about as a result of HIV/Aids have created a reservoir of child labourers who often have no parental protection from unscrupulous farm owners and cattle barons.
Young children are often used as cheap labour to herd goats and tend crops in exchange for food and clothes or even an irregular paltry wage.
While urbanisation and universal education in Botswana has freed most children from child labour, to children of the poor, urbanisation and universal education have proved to be a brutal sword that has subjugated them to a life of serfdom and servitude.
While children of the enlightened and the wealthy go to school, the poverty-stricken ones have been snatched to fill their space and herd goats and be an odd hand in the farm.
When society is too weak to protect these children of a lesser god, is it asking too much to ask elected officials to at least pay attention?
Everyone knows that this situation is going on but there is no policing, particularly in the agricultural sector, to ensure that children are not exploited or abused.
Perhaps the biggest yawning gap is that while government has opened up access in the public schools, there is nothing to ensure that children are where they should be; in schools.
Unto this day, government does not see the need to make schooling compulsory at least up to age 14. The reality of the situation is that a child can decide not to attend school and work for P50 at a minister's farm and there would be nothing wrong.
Until government realises that these policy gaps create a fertile ground for child labour and poverty in perpetuity for the minority and the wretched of the earth, we are in big trouble.
Today's Thought
