June 12 is designated as World Day Against Child Labour to draw awareness to the international issue of child labour and to develop solutions to end it. The day is observed to raise knowledge about the negative mental and physical concerns that children who are pushed into child labour endure across the world.
This year’s celebration focuses on action taken for the 2021 International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. It is the first World Day since the universal ratification of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and taking place at time when the COVID-19 crisis threatens to reverse years of progress in tackling the problem.
In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, and asked the ILO to take the lead in its implementation.
The resolution highlights the member States’ commitments “to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”
As the world marked World Day Against Child Labour on Saturday, June 12, on the theme: “Act Now: End Child Labour” a new report by the ILO and the United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) indicate that nine million additional children at risk as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19,” according to the new report by the ILO and UNICEF.
Undoubtedly, additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19 could mean that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions, while many more may be forced into the worst forms of child labour due to job and income losses among vulnerable families.
The Report “Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward” – released ahead of World Day Against Child Labour on 12th June – warns that progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.
The report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged 5 to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure. The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016.
The new estimates are indeed a wake-up call for the world including Ghana, as we cannot stand by while a new generation of children is put at risk. In sub-Saharan Africa, population growth, recurrent crises, extreme poverty, and inadequate social protection measures have led to an additional 16.6 million children in child labour over the past four years.
In 2021, the international community stands at a midway point – four years on from the last Global Conference on Child Labour in Argentina, and four years to go to achieve the SDG target 8.7 set to end child labour by 2025. This year’s World Day, and the action taken throughout the year, will contribute to the next milestone, the Global Conference on Child Labour in 2022, hosted by the Government of South Africa.
Almost one in ten of all children worldwide are in child labour. While the number of children in child labour has declined by 94 million since 2000, the rate of reduction slowed by two-thirds in recent years. Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025. How can the world community get firmly on track toward eliminating child labour?
As said by ILO Director-General Guy Ryder to mark the Day “Inclusive social protection allows families to keep their children in school even in the face of economic hardship. Increased investment in rural development and decent work in agriculture is essential. We are at a pivotal moment and much depends on how we respond. This is a time for renewed commitment and energy, to turn the corner and break the cycle of poverty and child labour.”
The future leaders of the country precisely, Engineers, Lawyers, Journalists, Medical Doctors, Pastors and other professionals would be having a long way to go as over two million Ghanaian children are engaged in various forms of child labour.
These children who engage in various sectors of the economy including commercial, agriculture, fishing, weaving, mining, truck pushing, pottery and illegal mining (galamsey) under all circumstances are supposed to be in the classroom.
Their activities in a way could be equated to the slave trade in the ancient day Ghana after 200 years of the abolishing of slave trade in Africa. As humanitarian sentiments grew in Western Europe with the Age of Enlightenment and the growth of religious groups and as European economic interests shifted slowly from agriculture to industry, a movement grew to abolish the slave trade and the practice of slavery.
In 1807, the slave trade was outlawed in Britain and the United States. Britain outlawed the practice of slavery in all British territory in 1833; France did the same in its colonies in 1848. In 1865 the US government ended slavery. The Atlantic slave trade continued, however, until 1888, when Brazil abolished slavery.
But, all over the world today, children’s rights, protection and welfare are very important component of all nations’ human capital development. The success story of any government depends on her commitment towards social development policies, addressing the needs of young people. Ghana is a leader in children’s welfare and protection. In the world, Ghana was the first country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In West and Central Africa, it is acknowledged that Agricultural fields, gold and diamond mines, stone quarry, informal sector and domestic work are activities with high child labour force.
Even though we are in the 21st century, child labour continues to deprive thousands of individuals especially children. This is why the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Within ten years, 191 countries had ratified it, making it most widely ratified human rights instrument in history.
Article 32 of the CRC 1989 states that every child (anyone under 18) “has the right to be protected from work that threatens his or her health, education or development”.
The CRC also states that every child has a right to education. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour, 1999, ratified by 136 countries, prohibits the most extreme forms of child labour that involve children being enslaved, held in bondage, separated from their families, or exposed to serious hazards and illnesses.
ILO Convention 138 on minimum age at work 1973, ratified by 123 countries, sets age limits for different types of work but millions of children still work for long hours on plantations in and or in factories in the world.
On many occasions, Ghanaian Rights Organisations have warned that, despite efforts to fight child labour in the country, around 20 percent of the nation’s children are engaged in labour. The problem is a lack of sufficient labour inspectors, or inspectors doing a poor job.
In order to nip in the bud the activities of child labour, more and better labour inspectors must be put in place to address the problem. We either need a far greater number of labour inspectors or the current labour inspectors must do a better job. The status quo is unacceptable. Labour inspectors must be made accountable. When problems continue to exist in regions, the labour inspectors of those specific areas must be evaluated and held accountable.
The government of Ghana has passed several laws and signed a number of treaties to guard against exploitative forms of child labour. Article 28 of the 1992 Constitution prohibits labour that is considered injurious to the health, education, or development of the child. Ghana has also signed three key international treaties that ban certain practices of child labour.
The provision in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana on the rights of children, led Government to the creation of Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Department of Children, Social Welfare, Special Police Unit for Child Protection.
Additionally, Ghana has passed its own laws on child labour. This includes the Children’s Act of 1998 and the Labour Act of 2003, both of which address child labour in detail. The Children’s Act bans all exploitative labour and echoes the 1992 Constitution’s prohibition by defining this type of labour as that which denies a child of health, education or development. The Act additionally bans a number of child labour practices that it lists as “hazardous”.
Children as a matter of interest are the treasures and assets of every country and are the ones who will hold the fore in the years to come. Therefore, talents and time must be invested in them by all and sundry.
Making rounds through the principals streets of major cities in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Koforidua, confirms how some children are neglected by their parents because of either they (parent) are unemployed or financially handicapped.
Some of the Children live on the streets because they are probably born there, some of the youth also flee from forced marriages, while others migrate to the urban areas in search of non-existing jobs, hence get impregnated.
Despite the efforts by the current government and successive to have a place in schools for children, some children are reported to have dropped out of school before they could complete their Junior Secondary Education. The Ghanaian child needs to be protected to sustain the future of the nation.
As a result of these, a lot of these children unpalatably are seen in the hot sun selling biscuits, ice water, toilet roll, toffees and other things just to make a living and the question that comes into mind to a common person is, do our children have a future after 64 years of independence?
Ghanaians should be guided by article 28 of the 1992 constitution which states that “every child has the right to same measure of special care, assistance and maintenance.” This, indeed, calls for all Ghanaians especially governments, church leaders, politicians and parents to be submissive to the Children’s Act of 1998, which prohibits anybody to subject children to inhuman treatment.
It is time political parties and their presidential candidates take a critical look at this area of making the life of children a better one as one of its major priorities. Children need to be protected against all acts of violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination and rape.
Creating a society fit for the Ghanaian child means all children should get the best possible start of life and have access to quality basic education. They need to be helped to develop their individual capacities in a safe and supportive environment.
This is the urgent need for every Ghanaian to promote the physical, social, emotional, spiritual development of children to make Ghana one of the countries that have designed programmes for children on the African continent.
It necessary for stakeholders especially political parties and government to let Ghanaians know their vision for children in order to protect their inherent dignity in Ghana and campaign for fair and good life for them.
