Parental irresponsibility is a major contributing factor to the recent increase in abuses against children in the country, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has said.
Most parents in Ghana especially in rural communities, the NCCE noted, prioritised their businesses and interest at the expense of their children and did not take keen interest in the welfare of their children.
Addressing residents of Ahomfie in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese (AAK) District of the Central Region, Mr Nicolas Ofori Boateng, the Regional Director of the NCCE said the situation undermined campaigns on child protection.
Some parents had turned their children into labourers while others used them for hawking instead of sending them to school, a practice he said must be discouraged.
The community engagement durbar was aimed at sensitising parents and community members on their civic responsibilities and the need to protect and provide for their children.
This follows the recent incident in the area where a step-mother allegedly wounded her five-year-old step-son in the lower left hand but left it untreated for weeks, resulting in the amputation of the hand after the intervention of two good Samaritans who spotted the boy in town and became alarmed of his condition.
The NCCE Director exhorted parents to give proper training and welfare services to their children.
He said the NCCE and the Social Welfare must be adequately resourced to intensify education on child protection as failure to do so, would result in dire consequences to society in future.
He also called on District assemblies to be firm in enforcing bye-laws on child protection and offer the necessary punishment to parents who flout them to serve as a deterrent to others.
Mr Boateng entreated Ghanaians to be bold to volunteer information or report people who perpetuated abuses against children to the appropriate authorities, adding that, it was only through that they would be playing their roles as patriotic citizens.
Ms Cathleen Addy, the NCCE Deputy Chairperson also called on parents to serve as good role models for their children and show them love and care to enable them to confide in them instead of discussing their problems with their peers, who might advise them wrongly.
“The children are the future of the nation, so if we cannot love, care, protect, encourage and give them a better education, then we will not have a future as a country,” she said.
She called on parents to sacrifice and invest in the needs and education of their children for them to have a better life.
Ms Yvonne Kwarah, the AAK District Director of the Social Welfare admonished parents to find reasonable means to punish their children when they faltered.
She said parents were required by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to protect their children and to educate them as a matter of right.
Children are to grow in the care of their parents and cautioned those who use the excuse of poverty to give out their children to other people at tender age to stop.
Ms Kwarah advised parents to stop using their children for hazardous activities that could have physical, psychological and emotional consequences on their health.
She expressed concern that the Ghanaian society was gradually becoming individualistic as people were no longer interested in issues of others.
The AAK District Police Commander, DSP John Paul Akonde and the Director of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) took turns to address the community members.
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