Tema Regional Director for the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Madam Fatima Mahama has called on Ghanaians help put an end to child labour and allow the youth to enjoy their growth.
According to her, data provided by UNICEF shows that 21% of children between ages five and seventeen years were involved in child labour and 14 percent were engaged in hazardous forms of labour.
This was twice as common in rural areas, she lamented.
“For poorer households, child labour is a negative coping mechanism and most of the children are involved in agriculture and fishing industries.
“In all regions, the vast majority of working children are unpaid family workers between the ages of five and seven years,” Madam Mahama stated during the launch of this year’s “World Day Against Child Labour.”
She noted that social norms also sought to promote the view that many adolescent children should be treated as adults, while poorly enforced legislation and policies to prohibit child labour are impeding the work of advocates against child labour.
She further expressed concern about insufficient allocation of resources for the prevention of and response to child labour, inadequate services to support working children or prevent child labour, and family reliance on income generated by children due to extreme poverty.
On his part, Mr. John Ato Brebor, Senior Principal Investigator at CHRAJ said the government needed to review the social protection policy to help alleviate poverty and encourage long-term human capital development since the major cause of child labour was poverty.
By: Rainbowradioonline.con/Ghana
