Combating child labour is collective responsibility

Ghana joined the global community to commemorate World Day Against Child Labour yesterday, June 12, 2025 on the theme: “Progress is clear, but there's more to do: let’s speed up efforts!”  

While commemorating this day, it is imperative to reflect on the progress made and the challenges that lie ahead. Child labour remains a pressing issue in Ghana, where many children are forced to work long hours in hazardous conditions, depriving them of their right to education and a childhood free from exploitation.

According to the UN, since 2000  the world has been making steady progress in reducing child labour.

However, over the past few years, conflicts, crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, have plunged more families into poverty – and forced millions more children into child labour. 

Subsequently, as of today, there are approximately 160 million children worldwide involved in child labour, which represents one in 10 children.

According to a statement by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to mark the day, over 1.1 million children in Ghana aged five to 17 are engaged in some form of work.

Furthermore, approximately 28 per cent of children in this age group are involved in child labour, and 20.7 per cent work under hazardous conditions.

Even more alarming, according to the statement, is the fact that “an estimated 500,000 working children are out of school, 68,500 have never attended school, while more than 389,000 have dropped out.”

This is indeed worrying because child labour has severe consequences on the country’s development, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and limiting opportunities for future generations.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, adds its voice to the call by CHRAJ for “urgent and united action to end child labour in Ghana.”

CHRAJ acknowledges that while Ghana has made legal and policy strides, such as ratifying key ILO conventions and launch of the Ghana Accelerated Action Plan Against Child Labour (2023–2027), real-world progress remains limited.

This is because among others, there is a significant gap in implementation, monitoring, and prosecution of violators. Many child protection offices and social welfare structures at the local level suffer from “budgetary constraints and limited logistical support,” making it hard to respond to cases of child labour effectively.

Therefore, it is important for the government and all stakeholders to work earnestly to enforce labour laws and provide financial support, logistics, resources and support services for relevant agencies.

There is also the need to strengthen collaboration by fostering partnerships between government agencies, NGOs, and community leaders to combat child labour.

A major challenge to ending child labour in Ghana is poverty, where families rely on their children's income due to extreme poverty and the issue of cultural influence because some communities view child labour as a necessary part of a child's socialisation process and skill development.

The paper is calling for more community sensitisation programmes to educate parents, teachers and children about the dangers of child labour and promote behavioural change.

Also, efforts must be made to empower households and communities economically by supporting vulnerable households through income-generating activities.

It is also essential to intensify efforts in child labour monitoring and remediation systems by identifying and supporting children engaged in child labour, providing educational materials and vocational training.

CHRAJ’s call for the government and all stakeholders to “update and expand national data on child labour,” and also for “comprehensive and periodic surveys, combined with robust monitoring systems,” to better understand and tackle the issue is timely, as it will support efforts to combat child labour and protect the rights of every child in the country.

The Daily Graphic believes that ending child labour is a collective effort, and that by working together to develop community-based initiatives such as child protection committees to monitor and protect children from harm, we can create a brighter future for children in the country, ensuring they have access to education and a childhood free of exploitation.

Let's intensify our efforts to combat child labour and protect the rights of every child in Ghana.