Women’s groups need to support ‘kayayee’

Article: Salome Donkor
The recent decongestive exercise by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) that resulted in the destruction of illegal structures in parts of the metropolis, was greeted with reactions from the Network for Women’s Right in Ghana (NETRIGHT) and other women’s organisations.
The NETRIGHT, The Women’s Manifesto Coalition (WMC), the Domestic Violence Coalition (DVC) and other civil society organisations raised concerns about what they described as the destruction of property of traders during the exercise.
In what may be described as a response to these sentiments, there was a decision by the President to the AMA to allow traders who had been displaced to resume business and this has resulted in brisk business at the central business district, including the Tema Station, where the AMA evicted the traders in order to renovate the place.
Traders of food items, clothing and shoes are doing brisk business at the station while the activities of female porters or ‘kayayoo’ have also been intensified.
The AMA Chief Executive, Mr Stanley Adjiri Blankson, was reported to have explained that the decision was to allow the traders to make some income during the Yuletide in order to pay for loans they had taken.
The action by the Assembly was lauded by the traders, since some of them had complained that the recent decongestive exercise carried out by AMA had affected their businesses and thus rendered them jobless. The AMA, however, assured the traders that the intention of the assembly was to make them happy and comfortable.
A statement issued and signed by the NETRIGHT Convenor, Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, expressed gratitude to the government for promptly responding to the concerns raised on behalf of traders affected by the recent exercise.
The NETRIGHT, the Women’s Manifesto Coalition, the Domestic Violence Coalition and other civil society organisations said they recognised the government’s action as a direct response to a number of campaign initiatives that had been mounted by different actors on behalf of the traders against the demolition exercise, with specific reference to the Tema Station traders, and petitions to the AMA and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC).
The statement recalled a news item on Ghana Television on December 3, 2007 which made reference to a meeting between government officials and traders, including members of the Tema Foodstuff Sellers Association, during which the government officials assured the traders of the government’s commitment to enhance the living conditions of ordinary citizens, such as traders.
It said the meeting ended with a promise to the affected traders that temporary spaces would be provided to enable them to return to undertake their economic activities pending the construction of permanent structures.
     Much as one sees NETRIGHT’s intervention as a positive step to ensure that the AMA carries out the decongestive exercise with a human face, since majority of those affected are women and breadwinners of their families, it is equally important to appreciate the need to control trading at prohibited areas to keep the station and the central business district clean to promote healthy living.
The activities of female porters who have turned the station into their homes also deserve serious attention, since most of the porters, who are teenagers, suffer frequent sexual abuse and harassment from men.
Consequently, a number of them have become teenage mothers who sleep in the open with their children, while some of them are also exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.
This paper has carried a number of stories portraying the woes of female porters who operate in various parts of the metropolis and the need for proactive measures on the part of the government and the related ministries of Women and Children’s Affairs and Manpower Youth and Employment, as well as organisations concerned with the welfare of women, to address the menace, but little has been done.
Some of the ‘kayayoo’ interviewed seemed ignorant of the various government interventions put in place to retrain them for gainful employment. Others who are aware of these programmes seemed not to be interested, since they see the female porter business as more lucrative then ‘wasting’ time on apprenticeship training, which they think will not be beneficial to them without a start-up capital.
This is where the various women’s organisations have a significant role to play in the area of sustained education and sensitisation programmes for the female porters.
Dr Mensah-Kutin indicated in an interview that NETRIGHT and the other women’s organisations would collaborate with the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs to sensitise the female porters to take advantage of the numerous programmes by the government and other non-governmental organisations to undergo skills training in areas like dressmaking, hairdressing, catering and craft making.
She said they would also be enlightened on the credit facilities available to small-scale business entrepreneurs to help them set up their businesses to enable them to lead dignified and secured lives.
It is obvious that the city authorities will not relent in their efforts to ensure that people would conduct their business activities in a conducive and healthy environment and that means that the AMA will not entirely discontinue the decongestive exercise.
It is for this reason that the Assembly has instituted a Sunday Market programme in Accra to operate between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and also advised the displaced women to patronise satellite markets in the metropolis that they have abandoned, for street business.
    The assembly, therefore, needs the support of the various women’s organisations to educate the displaced traders to participate in the Sunday Market and also patronise other satellite markets in the metropolis to make them more vibrant and attract customers.
While the statement from NETRIGHT lauded the government’s decision to provide temporary spaces for the traders, it called on the government to compensate all those who lost their livelihood and working capital in the demolition exercise, with particular reference to traders in Tema Station.
It also called for immediate halt to the destruction of property of traders across the country, and stressed the need to expedite action on the provision of permanent structures for traders.
NETRIGHT and its other coalition members reaffirmed their commitment to the promotion of human rights, gender equality and social justice.
They also called for systems and processes that facilitate dialogue, active participation, inclusiveness and a specific interest in protecting the poor to solve the country’s economic problems.
These assertion really impose a great task on NETRIGHT and its other coalition members to put their words into action in promoting human rights, gender equality and social justice.
The organisations also need to educate parents to ensure that children of school age who have taken to the streets to sell various items go to school, as was alluded to in a letter by the Headmistress of SOS Herman Gmeiner International College, who appealed to the government to continue to deliver universal education and create jobs to stop "this wholesale taking over of the streets in search of meagre livelihood".