The International Labour Organisation Reports indicate that Ghana has the highest rate of child labour with about 21 per cent of its child population aged 5 to 17 years participating in some form of child labour.
As the World marks a day against Child Labour, advocates are hopeful that prompt action will be taken to eliminate child labour in all its forms.
The 12 of June each year is marked as the International Day against Child Labour.
This year’s celebration is on ‘Social Justice For All. End Child Labour’.
The theme aims to highlight the link between social justice and child labour; the need to ensure children everywhere are given a fair opportunity at education and to grow into adults with decent income and stable employment.
A statement issued by the Commissioner For Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Joseph Whittal reveals that poverty and lack of access to quality education are major contributors to factors that put many children at risk of child labour.
However, insufficient resource allocation by the government impeded the effective implementation of some of the social protection policies such as Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education, the School Feeding Programme, and the Free Senior High School policy intended to help alleviate poverty and encourage the enrolment and retention of children in schools.
The statement adds that there is an urgent need to prevent the occurrence of child labour, as it deprives affected children, especially from poor households equal opportunities in education for a better future and to prevent intergenerational poverty.
CHRAJ is encouraging the government to evaluate these social protection policies and especially increase resource allocation to aid in their effective implementation in alleviating poverty and reducing cost opportunities for primary and secondary school enrolment and retention.
