2020 Theses Master's

Domesticated: The Right to Education for Domestic Workers in Tanzania

Mpango, Bwiza

In Tanzania, access to education for children has been difficult to achieve. Only recently in 2015 was public primary and secondary school made free by the current government. Despite this, many young girls are employed in the field of domestic work which in turn makes it harder for them to complete their education. Not only that, domestic work is a sector that has been unregulated by law for many years due to its informality. There are various reasons explored in my literature review such as discrimination based on race, gender and class that make domestic workers vulnerable to violence, harassment and abuse. Such discrimination extends itself to children who work as domestic workers in Tanzania. The ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers is yet to be ratified in the country as NGOs continue to push for its ratification. Through semi structured interviews the paper seeks to reveal the impact that domestic work has had on the women in the rural region of Kigoma as well as possible recommendations for the government in taking the necessary steps to ensure children are students and not domestic workers.