By Kingsley Nana Buadu
June 13 is World Child Labour Day, and in Ghana, statistics suggest that nearly 28 percent of children aged between 5 and 17 years are involved in child labour, with approximately 21 percent working under hazardous conditions.
At a durbar to commemorate the day at Saltpond-Ankaful in the Central Region, stakeholders have been charged to renew their collective commitment to eradicate the violation of children’s rights, particularly in the fisheries sector, where children are often exploited under hazardous conditions.
It was organised by CEWEFIA with support from the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity Project.
The theme for the commemoration of World Day Against Child Labour is “Social Justice for All; End Child Labour”.
In the Central Region, a durbar was held at Saltpond to mark the day.
The durbar was to raise awareness, mobilise communities, and Forster collective action against the exploitation of children in various forms of Labour with special focus on fishing communities.
In Ghana, nearly 28 percent of children aged between 5 and 17 years are involved in child labour, with approximately 21 percent working under hazardous conditions.
According to the 2017 Ghana Living Standards Survey, 78 percent, which is the majority of these children, work in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors.
The fisheries sector has in recent times seen an increase in child labour due to the declining fish stock. Some key drivers of Child Labour as identified include poverty, large family sizes, unfavourable social norms, and unemployment.
There was a panel discussion where the traditional leaders, civil society, Municipal Director of Education, Regional Director-Department of children, Social Welfare, and Immigration deliberated on the issue of child Labour.
The Representative from the GFRA project, Madam Baviina Musah, pledged GFRA-USAID/Ghana’s commitment to continue to partner government and fisheries stakeholders to implement various interventions in the fisheries sector, including developing Anti-Child Labour strategies and campaigns, among other things, to help deal with the menace.
The Labour Officer at the Ministry of Employment of Labour Relations, Ezekiel Mensah, outlined the things they are doing and what the ministry expects other stakeholders to be doing to eradicate child labour.
The programmes Director at CEWEFIA, Nicholas Smith, entreated perpetrators of such crimes against children to stop destroying the future of the children and society.
