Gender Ministry formulates policy to protect alleged ‘witches’

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) is to draft a policy to safeguard the rights of women branded witches in their communities.

She said a bill would later be put together for the consideration of Cabinet and subsequent approval by Parliament.

“Parliament is currently on recess; we will start the process as soon as it resumes. For the time being, the ministry has put measures in place to protect such women and ensure that people who abuse them are arrested,” the sector Minister, Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, said.

She added that while putting those measures in place, in the interim, her outfit would set up a task force to educate the people on the dangers and consequences in beating and lynching old women branded as witches.

The minister said this when she took her turn at the Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday, during which she gave account of the ministry's achievements and challenges from October last year to date.

Among the issues on which she spoke were human trafficking, adoption services and social interventions.

‘Witches’ camp

In relation to places referred to as ‘witches’ camps, Mrs Morrison said the facilities would not be shut down but would rather be renovated to serve as havens for alleged witches.

She explained that the decision was due to the unwillingness of suspected witches to return to their communities for fear of being lynched.

“We are working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to ensure that we provide the alleged witches safe havens before thinking of reintegrating them into society. We will also ensure that they are all put on the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme,” she added.

Achievements

According to Mrs Morrison, her ministry had achieved its target on key government policies under the ministry, in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“The ministry, in the year under review, achieved our targets, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to implement our planned activities and programmes for the rest of 2020. In doing so, we will be guided by the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

On the School Feeding Programme, the minister said the policy currently provided 2,980,000 pupils in 8,683 public basic schools with a hot nutritious meal a day.

She said the ministry had also built the capacity of 9,178 caterers and cooks in 11 regions in innovative nutrition to improve the quality of meals served to pupils.

“The registration of pupils in beneficiary schools onto the National Health Insurance Scheme has been re-launched. Farmer-based organisations in the Volta and Oti regions have also been profiled to facilitate the linkage between caterers and farmers,” she added.

Under the LEAP initiative, she said, five cycles of LEAP cash grants were paid to 334,084 households, adding that 1,451,656 extremely poor people were on the LEAP register.

“Other achievements chalked up under the LEAP include the development of an emergency payment strategy in the wake of COVID-19, as well as the connection of all LEAP households to financial services through an e-zwich platform,” she said.

Adoption and foster care

On child adoption, Mrs Morrison said the ministry had successfully approved 64 children for prospective adoptive parents since last year.

She said the country had amended the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), leading to the establishment of a Central Adoption Authority (CAA) under amended Act 937 of 2016 to coordinate all adoptions and also promote the well-being and best interest of the child.

“Currently, the CAA is undertaking a nationwide monitoring exercise and has collected data on adoptable children,” she said.

The minister further said the ministry provided 183 children with care and protection in various children’s homes across the country and supported 40 foster parents with food items to help them in the era of COVID-19.