Covid-19 lockdown increases both financial crisis and child labor in Uganda

Covid-19 lockdown increases both child labor and the financial crisis in Uganda. When Uganda announced lockdown for around two months to contain the spread of the virus, vehicle movement for exports, malls, schools, and also places of worship was prohibited. Due to which many small businesses closed, many kids from lower income strata had to start selling products on streets. The coronavirus pandemic has put a large number of children worldwide at risk of being forced to child labor, Thomson Reuters Foundation News exclusively reported.

In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation News, head of advocacy and communications for Save the Children in Uganda, Alun McDonald expressed that there are kids in the streets who have no choice but to sell stuffs like vegetables, fabric masks, eggs, toys, and snacks in the market to support their family during these tough times.

Many nonprofit organizations and activists have been getting reports about the expanding number of young women being brought into sex work to enable their families to make a decent living and purchase daily commodities he included. 

The education minister Janet Museveni stated a week ago, while online schools continue primary and secondary education, we will try and review when to reopen schools in the nation.

Analyst and activists fear that children might not return to school when they reopen, particularly those from less fortunate systems of society that struggled to pay school fees and other expenses, for example, books, uniform, and shoes. The longer the lockdown extends, according to the circumstances it will be uncertain if kids will join back schools.

As per The Reuters, many kids are trying hard to help their families sell goods in the market amid the coronavirus pandemic yet police bothers and asks them to go back home and also take their goods. It’s extremely tough for children like Nyero Kaka Rashid, who sells eggs in a close-by corner store as his family business went into misfortunes during the lockdown.

Article Credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation News