Ghana joins other Worldwide today, Friday, 12th June 2020 to commemorate World Day Against Child Labour.
World Day Against Child Labour this year, the focus is, “COVID-19 – Protect children from child labor now, more than ever”.
The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns to check its spread are pushing the poor to the brink and children are among the worst sufferers.
Across the world, there are an estimated 152 million underage workers, and 72 million among them are engaged in hazardous work, according to a UN report. The report also says as much as 71 percent of child laborers are in the farm sector, 17 percent in the service sector, and 12 percent in the industrial sector, including in dangerous mining activities.
Of all children in Ghana aged 5 to17 years, about 21 percent are involved in child labor and 14 percent are engaged in hazardous forms of labor. This is twice as common in rural areas.
In all regions, the vast majority of working children are unpaid family workers between the ages of 5 and 7 years.
More often than not, these dreams are not realized due to reasons and circumstances beyond their control such as poverty, conflict, famine among others. Most of these children tend to find themselves involved in one form of abuse or labor, which deprives them of their freedom, dignity, education, health, and dreams.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), child labor is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely, or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
The Ghana Children’s Act, (Act 560) of 1998, states that “the minimum age for admission of children into employment is fifteen (15).
However, children may be employed at the age of thirteen (13) to do light work. The minimum age for engagement of persons in hazardous work is eighteen (18).” Article 28 Clause 2 of the 1992 Constitution also frowns on this menace. It states that “every child has the right to be protected from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to his health, education or development.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
