Adansi North District Now A Child Labour Free Zone

The Adansi North District Assembly (ANDA), with its capital at Fomena has launched a project to mitigate child labour and ensure the elimination of Child Labour.

The district has thus been declared Child Labour Free Zone to make responsible parenting a priority to parents.

It has declared that no child shall be engaged in mining activities and that a person shall not engage a child of less than 18 years to undertake any trading (business) activity, including illegal mining. A parent or guardian is responsible for keeping children under 18 years indoors after 8.00 pm.

ANDA has said that a person who contravenes the said bye-laws commits an offense and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of twenty (20) penalty units or in default a term of three months imprisonment or  both.

The declaration is part of the Assembly's resolve to eliminate Child Labour in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with its programmes funded by the US Department of Labour.

Mr. Eric Kwaku Kusi, the District Chief Executive of Adansi North noted that, child labour is an issue of national and international concern and has brought leaders of various nations together to find solutions to it.

He mentioned Section 16 of the Children's Act, which entrusts the care and protection of all children in the hands of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and to ensure that this mandate is carried out, hence the resolve by the Assembly to join the fight for children against the menace of child labour.

The DCE, quoting the United Nations definition of child labour, defined it as any work that deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity, which include works that are mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes with their education by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely, or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

Announcing measures put in place to address the menace, the ANDA DCE said: “Every child of school going age must be in school during school hours, no child in the district shall be engaged in a work that deprives the child of his or her health, education and development.

Mr. Eric said it was obvious from the above that child labour is cruel, exploitative and one of the most heinous crimes that can be perpetrated by any person or group of persons against children, and must be eliminated in our societies.

He stated that Child Labour steals the childhood, the human right and dignity of children and must be eliminated; and that factors responsible for the perpetuation of child labour include irresponsible parenting, children born out of wedlock and children with no parents and relatives among others.

The DCE said, according to the ILO, lack of meaningful alternatives such as affordable schools and quality education was another major factor driving children to harmful labour.

He has, therefore, called on Ghanaians to support the New Patriotic Party government led by President Nana Akufo-Addo, which has demonstrated commitment to social interventions.

He indicated that the President Akufo-Addo's government has adopted comprehensive policies to reduce poverty, increase access and enrolment and improve the quality of education to ensure progress in our efforts to deal with child labour.

According to him, the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme were some of the interventions adopted to increase school enrolments and alleviate the economic burden of parents.

“The introduction of the Free Senior High School policy bridges the poverty gap since parents who force their children to engage in child labour attribute the reasons to poverty, lack of job opportunities and lack of access to available capital for small scale investment”.

Mr. Emmanuel Kwame Mensah, Project Director Giovanni Soledad of ILO Caring Gold Mining Project said Ghana has realised that Child Labour was a challenge and that government through its institutions was leading a national crusade against the menace and was making progress, which efforts the ILO has recognised.

He said there was a national action plan on the elimination of the worst form of Child Labour led by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, together with the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Education, Local Government and Rural Development, Fisheries and Land and Natural Resources.

Mr. Mensah said data available at the Ghana Statistical Service in 2014 revealed that one out of five children in the country was involved in child labour activities bringing the number to 1,890,000.

The Project Coordinator said there was a strong child labour monitoring systems aimed at eliminating the menace and that there was the need to improve on the enforcement mechanism of the country law to deal with culprits.

He called on institutions mandated to mitigate Child Labour to strengthened and build the capacity of its staff to be able to fight the menace. He continued that it is all over Ghana being the Ashanti region, Northern, Upper East and everywhere.