‘Media tasked to impact lives of children’
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, has called on the media to use their outlets to write stories that would make an impact and change the lives of children in the country.
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"As media men you can count your blessings not by the monetary gains but by saving the life of a child from abuse through your work," he added.
Mr Jamal made the call at a media launch of the 2016 World Day Against Child Labour at a ceremony in Accra.
This year’s celebration is on the theme: "End Child Labour In Supply Chains in Ghana: Together We Can!"
According to Mr Jamal, the issue of supply chains is a complicated one that cuts across various sectors such as agriculture, fishing, mining, construction and services which children are engaged in.
He said one out of every five children was estimated to be engaged in child labour which was a breach of their constitutional and fundamental human rights.
Mr Jamal said even though poverty was the core problem of child labour, there were other contributing factors which included ignorance and misconception, lack of education, inadequacies of the education system and the institutional weaknesses in the application of child labour laws.
He, therefore, asked the media to educate the public on this social canker and engage all civil societies that frown on human suffering, to fight a common cause to protect children from abuse.
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In an address by Ms Lalaina Razafindrakoto, a representative of the International Labour Organisations (ILO), she said a report by the Ghana Statistical Service stated that 1.2 million children in Ghana engaged in hazardous forms of child labour.
Ms Razafindrakoto pledged that the ILO would continue to assist in eradicating child labour in the country.