Ghana will join the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) on Monday, June 12.
The day, which was launched by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2002, is a global advocacy initiative to highlight the plight of children who engage in hard labour.
It is also a platform to garner support from child right organisations and to demand strategic policy actions to address the global menace.
The global theme for this year’s celebration is “In Conflict and Disasters, Protect Children from Child Labour.”
Locally, the day will be marked on the theme: “In Conflict and Disasters, Protect Children from Child Labour: Mobilising resources for the effective implementation of the National Plan of Action (NPA2) (2016-2020).
Recent figures released by the ILO showed that many of the world’s 168 million children who suffer from one form of hazardous labour or the other live in conflict and disaster prone areas.
It is also estimated that 70 million children are affected by natural disasters while more than half of the 65 million people who are displaced by wars are children.
In Ghana, 1.9 million children, are caught in the web of child labour, with such child labourers standing the risk of being killed, maimed, injured or suffer severe impairments.
To ensure that the day is marked across the country, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is collaborating with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), local assemblies and civil society organisations (CSOs) to garner support and create awareness.
A release issued by the ministry indicated that a national policy durbar on the mobilisation of resources for the effective implementation of strategic frameworks on child labour would be held on Monday, June 12.
National campaign
In a related development, a national campaign to call duty bearers to action to address the menace will be launched in Accra on July 4, this year.
The initiative, being carried out by Mayce Foundation, Ghana, a child right advocacy organisation, is also meant to create public awareness of the negative impact of child labour and the need to take pragmatic steps to curb it.
It is dubbed “Stop Child Labour in Ghana: School is the Best Place to Work.”
March
As part of the initiative, a torch-bearing march will be held in Accra on Monday, June 12 by the foundation through the principal streets of the city.
To garner public support for the event, the Founder of the foundation, Mr Harry Ahorlu, paid a courtesy call on Ms Marigold Akufo-Addo, a child rights advocate and sister of President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to ask her to lead the march.
He was accompanied by Torgbui Gobah Tengey, the President of the Ewe Ashanti Union (EWASH).
The march will begin from Abeka Junction through to the ministerial enclave, after which plaques bearing child rights messages will be presented to stakeholder ministers.
The ministers who will be presented with the plaques include those of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Employment and Labour Relations, as well as the country offices of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Commitment
Speaking to the Daily Graphic later, Mr Ahorlu explained that the move was against the backdrop of the increasing rate of child labour in the country.
“I have been a victim of child labour. At a young age of seven, I was fishing along the Volta Lake with other child labourers to the detriment of my education. Currently, my foundation has rescued at least 45 children from the jaws of excessive labour on the Volta Lake, quarrying sites, and other areas. We need to take decisive action to save more of these children and put them in school,” he said.
Support
Mr Ahorlu called for support from government agencies and other civil society organisations to stamp out child labour, especially in fishing communities.
“We do not need to sit down and expect external funding or support to be able to rescue our children from child labour. The government, private entities and all well-meaning Ghanaians must get involved in saving our little one’s future,” he added.
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