Child labour, canker in Ghana
According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, a child is a young human below the age of puberty; boy or girl. Based on this definition, a child is the responsibility of his or her parents.
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In the western countries, it is a crime if a child is not educated, given medical treatment, provided with shelter and other basic needs.
Ghanaians are quick to glorify the success stories in these advanced countries, forgetting that these countries have allowed their laws and institutions to work without any interference. Neither do they turn a blind eye to them when they (LAWS) fail to deliver.
It is not as though we do not have institutions and laws that protect children’s rights.
The highest law of Ghana, the 1992 Constitution, which we hold in high esteem, has spelt out the privileges and rights of Ghanaians including those of children.
Article 28 clause 1(a) says “Parliament shall enact such law as necessary to ensure that every child has the right to the same measure of special care, assistance and maintenance as is necessary for its development from its natural parents except where those parents have effectively surrendered their rights and responsibilities in respect of the child in accordance with law.
The same article 28 clause 2, further stated that every child has the right to be protected from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to his health, education or development.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), child labour is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and dignity and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.
Unfortunately child labour has become a canker in Ghana, and more attention than what pertains now is needed to tackle the problem.
Mr Stephen McClelland, Chief Technical Advisor of the International Labour Organisation(ILO) at the media launch of the International Day Against Child Labour in Accra last year said research on children in Ghana estimated that 15.5 million children were engaged in paid and unpaid domestic work.
He said these children were exposed to various dangers, rights violations and deprivation of childhood liberties under restricted and harsh conditions.
Despite the numerous programmes aimed at reducing child labour in Ghana, today, our major streets are still filled with children working to make ends meet.
Moreover, poverty, illiteracy and the increasing demand for cheap and flexible workforce is adding up to the entrenchment of child labour in the society.
In order to eradicate the child labour canker in Ghana, the government must reduce the cost of schooling and honour its promise of making basic and second cycle schooling free, accessible and compulsory to every child.
Again, the school feeding programme must be extended nationwide by the government, to encourage school enrolment and retention in order to reduce child labour to a large extent.
In conclusion, parents and guardians should be held responsible for not educating their wards, but rather pushing them into child labour.
The government, through the Attorney General, should also prosecute those who violate these provisions to serve as a deterrent to others.