‘Government committed to fighting child labour’

The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Bright Wireko-Brobby, has stated that the government is committed to finding practical solutions to stop child labour in the country.

He attributed the difficulties in implementing the National Action Plan 1 (NPA 1) to lack of resources and noted that the NPA 2, which is aimed at mobilising resources to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, would correct the challenges that confronted NPA 1 to ensure that it worked.

The deputy minister said this at the launch of NPA 2 in Accra last Monday on the theme: ‘Chance for change campaign’.

He explained that the NPA 2 “is to speed up the process of dealing with the practice of child labour,” a canker which has compromised the health and safety of children of school age in the country.

Mr Wireko-Brobby said the GH¢2.7 million action plan, which is expected to balance the underperformance in the NPA 1, had a life span of four years (2017-2021) and there was currently resource mobilisation going on to ensure its effective implementation.

The Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Joshua Amoah, assured stakeholders that the workers organisation would make sure that the areas of their operations would be child labour free zones.

“This is why we supported the planning committee’s domestication of the global theme, which is “In Conflicts and Disasters, Protect Children from Child Labour: Mobilising Resources for Effective Implementation of the NPA 2,” he explained.

The National Coordinator at the Ghana NGO Coalition for the Rights of the Child, Mr Barima Akwasi Amankwah, called on African leaders to protect the rights of children and stressed that “as a country, we cannot afford to lose 1.9 million children to child labour yearly.”

He entreated the government to prioritise the social and economic rights of children as contained in the 1992 Constitution.

Pupils from the Gomoa Ajumako D/A, Gomoa Denkyira Presby and Gomoa Dwurampong Catholic Basic schools in the Central Region were invited to witness the launch.