Global event highlights plight of children • Exposed to worst forms of child labour
Child labour means work that is prohibited for children of certain age groups. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the prevalence of child labour is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the least developed countries, nearly one in four children between the ages of five and 14 are engaged in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development.
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More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities, including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.
In 2010, the United States Department of Labour estimated over 2.7 million child labourers in Ghana, or about 43 per cent of all children aged 5–14, working, with agriculture, fishing and artisan mining being the largest employers.
Children in Greater Accra and Ashanti regions were common in domestic services. Child porters, locally called kayayei, work in urban areas and some of them are as young as six years.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) instituted the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to highlight the plight of children exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as those who worked in hazardous environments, slavery or other forms of forced labour.
Annual event
The day, celebrated internationally on June 12 annually, is observed to highlight the plight of children exposed to the worst forms of child labour and described as an important day set aside globally to reflect the challenges confronting children internationally.
The theme for this year’s celebration ‘No To Child Labour, Yes To Quality Education’, focuses on the struggle and social awareness of domestic work that constitute child labour.
At Savelugu in the Savelugu Nanton Municipality of the Northern Region, the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), in collaboration with three government agencies, is working together to reduce child exploitation in two districts in the Northern region. In this respect, the organisation has organised a one day workshop aimed at reducing child exploitation and promoting child rights through community empowerment.
Three governmental agencies, the Department of Social Welfare, Department of Children and the Ghana Education Service (GES), in conjunction with RAINS are also working to promote children’s rights through community empowerment in the two beneficiary districts.
The project, dubbed Childhood Regain Project (CRP), is being implemented in four communities in the West Mamprusi District and Savelugu Nanton Municipality. The four beneficiary communities are Nayorku and Daboya No. 2 in the West Mamprusi District, as well as Zokuga and Nanton in Savelugu Nanton Municipality.
So far, a total of 1,200 children in four communities have been rescued and enrolled in schools under the CRP project.
Study conducted by RAINS
According to a study conducted by RAINS and its partners in the beneficiary areas, child labour is on the increase, thereby depriving some children in the area their right to education.
The project is being implemented by RAINS with funding from Comic Relief, a UK based charitable organisation.
Speaking at a day’s workshop at Savelugu to interact with other key stakeholders, the Executive Director of RAINS, Mr Hardi Tijani, said the CRP project also sought to increase school enrolment in the four beneficiary communities.
Mr Tijani said the CRP was focused on providing quality basic education for children in the region through the provision of materials such as school uniforms, school bags, books and other sports and recreational facilities to encourage the children go to school.
Mr Tijani pledged his organisation’s support to the effort to reducing child labour and child exploitation which he said was denying children in the region their rights.
Education, right of children
The Northern Regional Director at the Department of Children, Mr Iddrisu Sanday, who gave a presentation on child rights, said it was the responsibility of every parent to provide quality education and shelter for their children.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Savelugu, Mr Abdulai Red, in a speech read on his behalf, thanked RAINS for its role in supporting education in the municipality and assured the organisation of their support for the smooth implementation of the project.
The Savelugu Municipal Director of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Ahmed Tijani Mahmud, in an interview said child negligence in the municipality was a great worry, adding that most of the children were left to walk aimlessly at odd hours of the day.
Role of parents
He entreated parents to monitor their children, especially the females since they were vulnerable and always suffered harassment from their male counterparts.
In a related development, the Commission on Human Rights and administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has called on the government to work assiduously to ensure free, compulsory and universal quality education for children of school age.
In statement signed by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Joseph Whittal, it said the theme for the event underscored the urgent need for national policies aimed at addressing child labour.
It said the right to education, to be consistent and effective in order to nip the practice of child labour in the bud, as well as, ensuring investment in quality education, needed to be fulfilled.
In addition, it indicated that there was the need to invest in the teaching profession to make it attractive and to retain competent teachers to deliver that quality education desired.
Poverty
The statement further explained that child labour was firmly rooted in poverty and that the lack of decent work for adults, lack of social protection and the failure to ensure that all children attended school, also compounded the problem.
While acknowledging the government’s effort at ensuring quality education for children through the various interventions, such as capitation grant and the school feeding programme, the commission entreated the government to redouble its efforts to address challenges which continued to dog the smooth operation of these laudable programmes.
CHRAJ also commended the initiative to allow re-sit of Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) examination, but stressed the need to provide opportunities for older children who had missed out on formal education to acquire vocational training.
Ministry of Gender
In another statement, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection said Ghana’s tireless work in policy planning, institutional capacity building, legal framework and law enforcement as well as education programmes had contributed immensely to the fight against child labour.