Commit yourselves to ending Child labour - Minister

Tongo (U/E), June 13m 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. 13 June 08