Poverty responsible for 90 percent of child labour

Ho, June 23, GNA - Poverty is responsible for 90 percent of child labour in Ghana.

Other causes are outmoded and harmful cultural and traditional practices, ethnic violence, discriminatory inheritance and parental neglect.

Ms. Stella Ofori, a Senior Labour Officer, Child Labour Unit of the Ministry of Manpower and Social Welfare, made these assertions in a paper she presented at a two-day workshop to identify types of child labour in the Volta Region and ways to tackle them. It was organized by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) under the auspices of Education International, a Global organization of teachers and other education workers and funded by FNV Mondail, a coalition of Unions in the Netherlands. Participants include teachers, parents, social workers, assembly members and pupils and students from first and second cycle institutions.

Mrs Ofori whose paper looked at "The concept and variants of child labour in Ghana", said commercial sex, carrying of head-loads for a fee, mining, fishing and agriculture, were some of the areas that children were forced by circumstances to engage in. She said between 2000 and 2008 about 25,000 children were rescued from child labour.

Mrs Ofori said "child labour creates and sustains poverty cycle and creates high dependency rate and large pool of illiterate citizens". She therefore advised parents to prioritize their children's education as part of a holistic approach to dealing with the problem. Mr. Jacob Anderson, Head of Membership of Education of GNAT, said the workshop was to create an opportunity for pupils and students to interact with parents and stakeholders to find solutions to child labour in the region.