Let’s step up efforts to fight child labour - DCE

Asankragwa, (W/R) Aug 8, GNA - Mr Samuel Victor Meisu, District Chief Executive of Wassa Amenfi District of the Western Region, has appealed to all stakeholders in the District to join the fight to eliminate child labour in the area.

He said the District had allocated funds in its annual budget to support anti child labour projects and programmes in the area.

Mr Meisu said the Community Child Labour Protection Committees had been re-activated, while a number of new committees had been formed.

The DCE said this when a team of International Labour Organisation (ILO) officials visited him at his residency at Asankragwa.

The ILO officials were in the district as part of a two-day District Level Consultative Workshop organised for cocoa growing communities on the new ILO Cocoa Community Project (CCP).

The project has five components that would support the National Plan of Action (NPA) endorsed by Parliament in October 2010 to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2015.

The components include Awareness-raising and Development of Community Action Plan; Access to Relevant Education; Improved and Diversified Livelihood; Child Labour Monitoring systems; and Capacity Building.

Mr Meisu also pledged the District’s support and assistance in the implementation of the project.

Mrs Stella Ofori, Principal Labour Officer, Child Labour Unit Labour Department, Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, said the guiding principle of the NPA was for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies to budget for the services needed to implement the relevant laws and policies underpinning the plan.

"People dealing with different categories of children are required to have necessary qualifications or should meet specified criteria," he said.

She said one of the objectives of the plan was the effective enforcement of the laws on the worst forms of child labour.