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Commit yourselves to ending Child labour –
Minister
Tongo (U/E), June 13, Ghanadot/GNA- Ms Akosua Frema
Osei-Opare, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Manpower,
Youth and Employment (MMYE) on Friday, called on both
National and International stakeholders in the welfare of
children, to join forces and increase their commitment to
ending child labour.
The Minister said education must be made accessible to all
children of school going age.
She noted that children were forced to stay out of school
and work, mainly because of poverty, but said, government on
its part had put in place many measures to reduce poverty
and also make it possible for all children to go to school.
Ms Osei-Opare, made the call when she gave the keynote
address on the occasion of the National Celebration of World
Day against child labour on the theme, ‘Education, The Right
Response to Child Labour’, at Tongo, Talensi-Nabdam District
in the Upper East Region.
She said the MMYE was developing a seven year National Plan
of Action to serve as an integrated framework for linking
relevant actions by different partners in different sectors,
with a view to tackling child labour in a coordinated and
sustainable manner.
According to her, child labour had also been mainstreamed
into the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Two (GPRS
Two) and the guidelines of the Medium Term Development Plans
of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies for adequate
Government support to implement interventions to effectively
deal with the worst forms of child labour.
She said programmes like the Livelihood Empowerment against
Poverty (LEAP), designed to help poor, excluded and
vulnerable households, money on regular basis, to help them
gradually improve their living standards.
The programme also demanded that children in such households
refrain from work that would keep them out of school. The
Capitation Grant that takes care of all school fees and the
free lunch programme were all meant to encourage children to
go to school, she added.
Ms Osei-Opare explained that the unacceptable child labour
was one that gave the child too much work and kept them out
of school, saying, “however, all the partners in the fight
against child labour, national and global have commonly
agreed on the importance of children participating in work
activities that are beneficial to their development and does
not prevent them from benefiting fully from education.”
Mrs Angelina Baiden-Amissah, Deputy Minister of Education,
Science and Sports (MOESS), noted that, situations where the
child or parents is coerced or induced to give the child out
to work for exploitative purposes, was also an unacceptable
form of child labour.
“Day in day out, the public sights children performing
difficult tasks like pulling heavily loaded trucks, breaking
stones at quarry sites, selling wares and engaging in
fishing activities, whilst these children are supposed to be
in school”, she said.
“Children in the northern part of the country are often
trafficked to cities like Accra and Kumasi to work as house
helps, prostitutes, farm hands, fisher boys and all sorts of
odd jobs.
Children are also trafficked to other countries like Togo,
Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast through ‘Pimps’, who promise
them greener pastures, only for them to suffer conditions
and services that are too much for their age”, she added.
Mrs. Baiden-Amissah cautioned parents to refrain from
indulging their children in labour or giving them out to be
sent to other places to work, saying, “the government is
very serious with the enforcement of laws on trafficking for
exploitative purposes and has empowered the Police and
Interpol to arrest parent, pimps and children being
trafficked”.
Mrs. Agnes Chigabatia, Upper East Deputy Regional Minister,
stated that the high number of children in the region
engaged in labour was appalling.
“Majority of children aged between five and seventeen are
engaged in child labour, with the young girls being the
worst affected”, she said.
She called on Chiefs, Opinion leaders and the literates to
spread the message on the effects of child labour and
educate the people on the need to give every child formal
education.
Mrs. Chihgabatia said good quality human resource base was
needed to eradicate poverty and put the children in better
positions to live normal and acceptable lives. “We must
therefore espouse education as the major tool for liberating
the Region from poverty”, she said.
The celebration was organized by the MMYE in collaboration
with MOESS and Afrikids, an NGO that is working for the
welfare of children in the Region.
It was attended by Chiefs, parents, school children and
Heads of Departments and various organizations.
GNA
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