The Impact of Cultural Norms on Influencing Child Labour Practices in Tanzania: The Case Study of Small Scale Mining in Morogoro District, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper is endeavored to examine the influence of cultural norms in influencing child labour practices in Tanzania. It is inspired by the concern that numerous studies have been conducted about child labour practices in Tanzania. Disappointingly, the exiting studies overlooked the examination of the impact of cultural norms on in influencing child labour practices. Therefore, this paper is a modest attempt to bridge the existing gap of knowledge. The mixed methods approach combining both descriptive cross-sectional and phenomenology designs were employed .The target population for the study consisted of social welfare officers, community development officers, most vulnerable children commitee's members, and community members. The ward executive officers, village executive officers, child labouers, primary school teachers and employers were also involved. Simple random sampling, stratified sampling, purposive and convenience sampling were used to select respondents while questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, observation and document analysis were tools used to collect data. The collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain descriptive statistics and inferential statistic while qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis model. From the findings it can be concluded that there is an influence of cultural norms on child labour practices in Tanzania. It is hereby recommended that there is need of an increased awareness raising campaigns by the government and civil society organisations against child labour practices.