Intensify crusade against child labor-minister

The Minister at the Presidency in charge of Social and Allied Institutions, Mrs. Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah, has appealed to all stakeholders in children’s affairs to intensify the crusade against child labour in the country, calling on parents to be interested in the welfare and education of their children. In a special message on the World Day Against Child Labor, Mrs. Ghansah called on Ghanaians “to intensify the crusade against child labor by offering better protection for the rights of children especially in Ghana and redouble their efforts to quicken the pace of the implementation of the National Plan of Action”.

She observed that the increasing demand of employers for cheap and flexible workforce had also been one of the leading causes of child labor, blaming small scale enterprise owners for being the main culprits.

She disclosed that in 2011, there were an estimated 215 million child laborers in the world - 115 million of which were involved in hazardous work, adding that child labor in present times has increased tremendously in the developing countries including Ghana. Every year on June 12 the World Day Against Child Labor is observed to raise awareness of the plight of child laborers world-wide and to combat child labor around the world the International Labor Organization (ILO) initiated the World Day Against Child Labor in 2002.

The theme for this year’s observance is “NO CHILD LABOR IN DOMESTIC WORK”.

The World Day against Child Labor provides an opportunity to gain further support of individual governments and that of the ILO social partners, civil society and others, including schools, youth and women's groups as well as the media, in the campaign against child labor. She called for a focus on poverty reduction and decent work alternatives for poor families whose children may be pushed into domestic work at an early age or in exploitative conditions.

“We must all as a country endeavor to lash out this evil phenomenon in our beloved country by creating the enabling environment for the development of the human resource base of the country,” the statement said.