Krachi Traditional Area intensifies moves to end child labour
World Child Labour Day is marked on June 12 every year to foster the worldwide movement against child labour in any form, and to raise awareness and step up activism to prevent child labour. The day was first launched in 2002 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
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The ILO defines child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity, and which is harmful to their physical and mental development.
In developing countries such as Ghana, most of these children are engaged in the manufacturing, agriculture, fishing, mining, construction and service industries, and are deprived of education, and sometimes exposed to occupational, health and environmental hazards.
Extreme forms of child labour
In some extreme forms, child labour involves children being trafficked, enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves.
In an address read on his behalf to launch the World Day Against Child Labour at Kete Krachi in the Volta Region, the Paramount Chief of Krachi Traditional Area, Nana Mprah Besemuna III, called for intensive and frantic efforts to end the menace of child labour in the country.
He said addressing the issue should no longer be seen as the sole responsibility of government and non-governmental organisations, but, rather, there was the need for the involvement of communities and the media with their huge listenership and readership.
The launch of the event, on the theme,“End Child Labour in Supply Chains in Ghana: Together We can!”, was initiated by Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), in conjunction with Education International and Partners in Community Programme (PACODEP), a non-governmental organisation.
Fight against child labour
Nana Mprah said the fight against child labour should be a holistic and collective effort, and added that all sectors of society, including government, NGOs, private sector, industries, trade unions, employers, organisations and international bodies like UNICEF and ILO, collectively needed to decide that it was no longer acceptable that children carry the onerous burden of feeding their families and also end child labour in the supply chain.
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In an address read on his behalf, the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr David Ofori Acheampong, said despite several pieces of legislation passed at national and international levels, it was disheartening to note that a number of children were still engaged in child labour.
He said GNAT had demonstrated its commitment to the fight against child labour and had since 2001 trained 100 teachers annually in communities where child labour was common, adding that this year, GNAT had organised a training programme for teachers in the Krachi West and Krachi Nchumuru districts and also donated 50 life jackets to teachers on some islands on the Volta Lake.
Perpetrators
In a statement, the assistant Volta Regional Secretary of GNAT, Mr Abdul Azizu Salifu, said perpetrators who engaged children in child labour had the guts to do so because people were not prepared to expose them, thus making the fight against child labour more frustrating.
Mr Salifu said the Volta Regional branch of GNAT was not pleased with the portrayal of the region as a haven for child labourers and that it would continue to resist any acts that were inimical to the growth and development of the child.
An encounter on the Volta Lake had brought out the fact that a number of children migrated from the Tongu communities in the southern part of the region to engage in fishing activities on the lake, and that many parents were also in agreement with their children fishing either before going to school or after school.