The National Tribute Desk report
Child labour, which is illegal according to the laws of Ghana, has become very good business for parents and guardians in most areas in Ada and along the Volta Lake, due to parents' eagerness to literally sell off their children for money.
When The National Tribute team visited some villages including Kewunor, Azizanya, Akyeremade, Deefour Kojokrom, Dade Tokro, Mewiekpor and other surrounding areas in the Ada constituency over the weekend, children between the ages of six and ten were seen busily selling on the streets and the boys were mending nets belonging bully fishermen who were rudely issuing orders to them without mercy.
However, article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989, ratified by 191 countries, states that every child (anyone under 18) "has the right to be protected from work that threatens his or her health, education or development".
According to the ILO, child labour is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children.
The CRC also states that every child has a right to education. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ratified by 136 countries, prohibits the most extreme forms of child labour that involve children being enslaved, held in bondage, separated from their families, or exposed to serious hazards and illnesses.
But the situation in Ada and most areas along the Volta Lake as uncovered by this paper is most disturbing as some of these children who spoke to the team said they taken away from their parents in some typical villages to the slave masters to work for them and would not be able to find their ways home even if they were allowed to.
In an interview with a bare-footed 13-year old girl who mentioned her name as only Akos who has been selling groundnuts in the scorching sun for her mistress, said she found herself doing that because she has no alternative since she would be beaten if she refuses to obey the orders of her mistress to sell the groundnuts.
According to the tattered, dirty looking and almost naked little girl, her mother packed her luggage and released her to accompany the woman, her madam, as she calls her, to help her sell items in the area with the promised that she will be sent to school.
"But for almost two years now, I have been selling for her but she has never mentioned school to me meanwhile, her children are all attending school," she said almost in tears.
The girl who would always looked over her shoulders for fear of being spotted speaking to paper, added that her main duty is to carry the groundnuts along the banks of the river and other surrounding areas to sell to people and send the money home to her mistress.
Investigation conducted by the paper showed that some of the girls end up being impregnated by their slave masters while those who refused to sleep with their slave masters were beaten up and sometimes made to starve.
The boys follow their slave masters on the fishing expedition. Their duties include going down the lake to untangle nets and mending nets after the fishing expedition.
At the mosquito-infested Ada estuary, where the team passed the night, some of the children were seen sleeping in the open without mosquito nets.
A teacher who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity said since he was posted to the village some years ago, he had witnessed children being molested on a daily basis.
"I am a teacher here and what happens is a big issue. The children follow and sell for these unscrupulous people on conditions of either taking them to school or to assist them to learn a trade when they are of age but are dumped when it is their turn to fulfill the bargain," the teacher said.
According to some residents of Ada, "the children are always dirty selling anything from one street to another. The guardians decide to feed them anytime they want".
The boys always gather at a spot, waiting for an opportunity to escort strangers who visit Ada to the various guest houses and tourist sites of their choice. As young as twelve, they navigate and paddle boats with the strangers on board.
In view of this, the future leaders of the country, priests, pastors, engineers, lawyers, journalists, medical doctors and other professionals would have a long way to go to ensure the end of this disservice as about two million Ghanaian children are engaged in various forms of child labour.
These children who are illegally engaged in the various sectors of the economy, including commercial, agriculture, fishing, weaving, mining, truck pushing, pottery and illegal mining (galamsey) under all circumstances, are supposed to be in the classroom.
Their activities, in a way, could be equated to the slave trade which was practiced in ancient Ghana, some 200 years after the abolishing of slave trade in Africa. As humanitarian sentiments grew in Western Europe with the Age of Enlightenment and the growth of religious groups and as European economic interests shifted slowly from agriculture to industry, a movement grew to abolish the slave trade and the practice of slavery.
Children are the future leaders of Ghana and when those who find themselves in deplorable and needy situations are not well catered for, it adds on to the already existing problems the nation is battling with.
The government of Ghana has passed several laws and signed a number of treaties to guard against exploitative forms of child labour. Article 28 of the 1992 Constitution prohibits labour that is considered injurious to the health, education, or development of the child. Ghana has also signed three key international treaties that ban certain practices of child labour.
The provision in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana on the rights of children, led Government to the creation of Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, Department of Children, Social Welfare, Special Police Unit for Child Protection.
Additionally, Ghana has passed its own laws on child labour. This includes the Children's Act of 1998 and the Labour Act of 2003, both of which address child labour in detail. The Children's Act bans all exploitative labour and echoes the 1992 Constitution's prohibition by defining this type of labour as that which denies a child of health, education or development. The Act additionally bans a number of child labour practices that it lists as "hazardous".
Interestingly, there is an ardent belief that when the educational opportunities are facilitated to access quality education and training of children and mobilising communities against child labour, Ghana will go a long way to minimize the problems of these children.
Situations in other African countries is no different from Ghana, as many children abandoned school and opt to work to earn a living just because of either broken family or single parenthood.
Statistics from the 2000 population census of Ghana indicates that over 60,000 children of school-going age failed to enroll in school in some districts especially in the Ashanti Region.
Children as a matter of interest are the treasures and assets of every country and are the ones who will hold the fore in the years to come. Therefore, talents and time must be invested in them by all and sundry.
