National plan to end child labour launched

Published in the Daily Graphic on 8/06/2010, pg 11

Story: Matilda Attram
The elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) is one of the country’s major priorities for the enhancement of a sustainable development.
To fight the menace, provisions of the country’s 1992 Constitution and other relevant legislation such as the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) protect the rights of children and absolve them from engaging in any work that constitutes a threat to their education, health or development.
A more coordinated effort to eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour was adopted by stakeholders and became validated in 2009 to harmonise relevant actions by partners in order to address all issues related to child labour by 2015.
The project, a National Plan of Action (NPA) for the elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL), brings together stakeholders in development to address child labour in a more coordinated and sustained manner.
They include the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (MESW) as the leading organisation partnering with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), the Ghana Employers Association, as well as representatives of ministries, departments and agencies, civil society organisations and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).
The NPA provides a comprehensive framework which sets out a priority collection of interventions for ensuring the protection and development of every Ghanaian child.
According to the NPA, the worst forms of child labour as defined in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 182 includes practices such as the sale and trafficking of children, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, which includes the forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, the use, procuring or offering of children for prostitution, or for the production of pornography or pornographic performance, and the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs.
The 2003 Ghana Child Labour Survey (GCLS 2003) revealed that 2.47 million children out of an estimated number of 6.36 million aged between 5 and 17 were economically active, with about 1.27 million in activities classified as child labour.
The launch of this year's World Day Against Child Labour and the current International Labour Organisation (ILO) Child Labour Global Report aimed at reducing all forms of child labour to the barest minimum by 2015, took place in Accra recently.
It had the theme 'Ghana, Go for the Goal: End Child Labour'.
Speaking at the launch, the Deputy Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, stated that child labour continued to pose problems that resulted in child abuse and hindered the growth and development of children in developing countries.
She said children who were the most vulnerable in society lacked the necessary protection they need to enable them acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
According to her, a number of children were still engaged in all forms of economic activities which undermined their development. She also mentioned that fishing, farming and forced labour contributed to prostitution and streetism, thereby exposing children to all forms of abuses.
She called on all to support in the fight against child labour to create a better future for children.
In his welcoming address , the President of GJA, Mr Ransford Tetteh, described child labour as a violation of the rights of children which needed to be considered and the nagative cultural practices and traditional beliefs in Africa and Ghana in particular, affected moves to address the problem of child labour.
He attributed the major cause of the problem to the poor economic status of Africa and Ghana and emphasised the need for an effective mechanism to help curb the menace.
Mr Tetteh, therefore, urged the media to seek proper understanding of the issue to assist them in their reportage.
Giving an overview of the NPA for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Ghana, which is targeted for the period 2009-2015, the Principal Labour Officer of the Child Labour Unit of the Labour Department, Madam Stella Ofori, indicated that the NPA was instituted in recognition of the fact that child labour was a challenge to development.
According to her, the project prioritised nine worst forms of child labour which include child trafficking, fishing, mining and quarrying (galamsey), ritual servitude, commercial sex exploitation and child domestic servitude.
Others were carting of heavy loads, involvement of children in agriculture (cocoa, cattle herding, oil palm, cotton, crop and vegetable farming), and street hawking and begging.
She outlined the weak comprehensive legal framework for addressing child labour, the unprotected welfare and rights of children, limited livelihood opportunities for poor households and communities and the low technological practices involved in the production of goods and services in traditional economic sectors as some major issues and objectives identified by the NPA as contributing factors to the practice of child labour and stressed the need for the adoption of new strategies that would help protect the rights of children.
The Chief Technical Advisor of ILO/IPEC, Mr Francesco d'Ovidio, who gave a global trend of the problem, expressed the need for the commitment of stakeholders to fight child labour.
He stated that although the situation declined due to the approaches adopted, it required much work to be done.
In a statement, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere called on the media to project the voice of the Ghanaian child to help transform society.
The launch of the event which would be climaxed on June 12, was attended by representatives from organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), ILO/IPEC and MOWAC.