THE MINISTER for Women and Children's Affairs, Mrs. Gladys Asmah, has called for a redefining of Child Labour.
According to her, children who support their families on the farm or do petty trading cannot be said to be under any form of hard labour, but it is when children are made to work under harsh conditions, such as mining sites to get paid, that should rather be seen as child labour.
Mrs. Asmah was speaking at the National Children's day held at Koforidua over the weekend.
The programme, which was under the theme, "Providing a resource center for child's development in communities" saw children bearing messages, such as "Stop Child Labour," "Protect children from exploitation and abuse," and "Invest in children," among others.
The minister announced that plans are underway to construct community children centres in the regional capitals to offer children the opportunity to develop their potentials.
The children community centres would seek to provide complementary services, to guide young people to study and engage in beneficial out of school activities.
Research has shown that it is during the out of school period that children, in the absence of parental supervision, get involved in habits that impede their development, the minister noted.
She expressed the hope that with the establishment of the centres, it would bridge the gap between the period school opens and when it closes.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Eastern regional minister, Dr. Francis Osafo Mensah, disclosed that 30 gari-processing machines had been distributed to all the 15 districts in the region.
This is an effort to eliminate poverty in the rural areas and make parents more economically independent in order to cater for their children's education, he said.
He advised the children to be disciplined and respect their parents, as their future development depends on this.
