Child labour, modernized form of domestic slavery, imperialism

Kpando, June 14, GNA - Mr. Pius K. Adanuti, Kpando District Chief Executive (DCE) on Tuesday described the menace of child labour as modernized form of domestic imperialism and exploitation, which needed to be uprooted from society. He said the resources and potential of the Volta Lake should be turned around for socio-economic development of the country and not a haven or nursery for child labour and exploitation. Mr Adanuti was speaking in a welcoming address at the sixth national celebration of the World Day Against Child Labour at Kpando, under the theme: "The Future Harvest: Agriculture Without Child Labour."

The Day was organized by the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MMYE), Ghana Employers' Association (GEA) and the General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) of Trades Union Congress (TUC), under the auspices of International Labour Organization (ILO) and other development partners. Mr Adanuti noted that available statistics indicated that one-third or 33.3 percent of all worst forms of child labour and exploitation occurred in the Volta Region.

The DCE therefore, entreated the municipal, district assemblies and social partners to gird their loins and double efforts towards eliminating the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), which had become national and global issue.

He stated that worst forms of poverty would continue to afflict families as long as they indulge in this illegal practice of child labour and slavery and shirk the responsibility to invest in the education of their children.

"Education was a major key to combating poverty and ignorance and not in the number of children one sold into child labour and slavery", Mr Adanuti observed. He enumerated the activities of head porters, kaolin mining, stone quarrying and sexual exploitation as worst forms of child labour in the district and called on all stakeholders to braze up for the task of elimination the scourge.

The DCE said the Assembly, in partnership with ILO and GAWU would procure two motorcycles for the focal agency and a further boost of 100 million cedis counterpart funding from the Assembly sources towards the elimination of the menace.

Mrs. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment said the promulgation of the Human Trafficking ACT 694 of 2005 was a great stride to bring perpetrators of child trafficking to be prosecuted. She said other laws, including the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (ACT 30), the Criminal Code Amendment ACT, 1998 (ACT 554), the Juvenile Justice ACT 563 and the newly passed Domestic Violence ACT made parents liable for selling their children into servitude and slavery.

Mrs. Osei-Opare, also Member of Parliament for West Wuogon said child labour had been mainstreamed into the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and the guidelines of the Medium Term Development Plans of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for adequate government support to implement interventions and effectively deal with WFCL.