Fighting child labour- Are we losing the battle?

Article: Salome Donkor (7th June, 2008)
While on my way home one evening around 8.00pm, I spotted two girls around the Airport Traffic Lights. One was selling plantain chips and the other sachet water.
The red light came on so they moved towards the vehicles that had stopped to market their wares. Out of curiosity, I asked of their ages when they got close to my car and both of them were aged 8 years and in primary two.
The conversation ended there because the green light came on and I had to move on, but while driving home I could not stop thinking about my two friends, who I will call Abena and Akosua. I felt scared for the two little girls who were moving on the road, walking close to moving vehicles to sell their wares at that time of the night.
My friends Abena and Akosua are not the only children who are engaged in hawking at the various traffic intersections on the streets of Accra, which puts their lives at risk. There are others who also carry loads at lorry stations for a fee, who are popularly referred to as ‘Kayayee.’
In mining areas like Akwatia and Obuasi, children abandon school to engage in ‘galamsey’, while in some areas, children are engaged in stone quarrying.
Some children also climb tall trees to harvest forest products, mix and handle pesticides without adequate protection, dive into deep oceans to untangle fishing nets, use sharp tools and dangerous machinery.
Children engaged in the agricultural sector operate in poor and dangerous conditions and are harshly exploited with little or no pay. They are deprived of their childhood, adequate education and self-development. A large number of these children are exposed to unsafe and risky working conditions.
Many of the jobs they carry out are hazardous - causing physical and mental injuries and sometimes even costing them their lives. In the worst forms of child labour, children are exploited, abused and denied any education, thus compromising their future livelihood.
The Fourth Republican Constitution and the Children’s Act, 1998, Act 560 have clear provisions that protect children against these hazardous conditions, but the practice persists.
When the United Nations adopted the water-shed Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, the ILO was poised to provide direct assistance to countries to tackle child labour.
The results of a Child Labour Survey conducted in 2003 estimates that more than 242,000 children are engaged in hazardous labour, while over one million children under 15 years were estimated to be working in Ghana.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has estimated that some 165 million children between the ages of five and 14 are involved in child labour. Many of them work long hours, often in dangerous conditions.
Child labour is closely associated with poverty. Many poor families are unable to afford school fees or other educational expenditure and, therefore, depend on the contribution that a working child makes to the household’s income; they tend to place more importance on that than their education.
In 1998, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was adopted. It included the elimination of child labour as one of the four fundamental principles which the ILO members pledged to respect, regardless of whether they had ratified the relevant Conventions. In 1999, the ILO’s constituents adopted the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182).
The ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a platform for highlighting the global extent of child labour and focusing attention on global action to eliminate child labour. Each year the day is celebrated on June 12, to link governments, employers and workers’ organisations, as well as civil society groups and others such as schools and the media, in the campaign against child labour, through advocacy and solidarity.
This year the World Day against Child Labour will be marked around the world with activities to raise awareness that education is the right response to child labour, on the theme “Education: The right response to Child Labour”.
Consequently, emphasis will be focused on educational policies to address child labour by providing properly resourced education and skills training and to promote awareness on the need to tackle child labour.
Child rights advocate, Mr Bright Appiah, states that in the Ghanaian cultural setting where it is believed that children can do something to support the family, it is really difficult to get people to understand that children who work to contribute economically to the house are engaged in child labour.
He said it was important to look at what labour is and how it pertains in the country’s cultural set-up. He explained that anything a child will do depends on his/her strength, age and health, adding that child labour occurs when any of these factors are negatively affected.
He said it was important to look at which was supreme; the law or culture, and pointed out that although the law was supreme, its implementation was inhibited by the cultural environment. Mr Appiah, however pointed out that situations where children do all kinds of jobs for money under hazardous conditions, are not in consonance with the proper growth and development of children and must be critically looked at.
Recognising the role of the media in the national fight against child labour and to enhance the commitment of journalists to the promotion of the enjoyment of the constitutional rights of children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) organised an interaction attended by a delegation from UNICEF Ghana, led by Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Country Representative, and representatives from the Ghanaian media to explore ways of strengthening collaboration between the UN specialised agency on children and the media in Ghana, on how to promote greater coverage of children issues.
Dr Ali Haque pointed out that the enforcement of the laws that protect children was paramount and the media had a role to play in areas where much had not been done.
She said there was the need for adults to be accountable to children and create forums where children’s voices could be heard and their concerns addressed.
A hand-out that outlined guidelines for reporting children advised the media not to publish stories or images which might put the children, their siblings or peers at risk even when their identities were changed, obscured or not used.
It also advised the media to avoid questions, attitudes or comments that were judgmental or insensitive to cultural values and that put children in danger or expose a child to humiliation, or that reactivates a child’s pain and grief from traumatic events.
It also advised media practitioners to avoid categorisations or descriptions that expose children to negative reprisals, including additional physical or psychological harm, or to lifelong abuse, discrimination or rejection by their local communities.
Children are more prone to exploitation than adults. Some employers actually prefer to employ children because they are easier to control and do not know or demand their rights.
For biological and developmental reasons, children who are exposed to dangerous chemicals, machinery, sharp tools and heavy loads are more susceptible to long-term health problems.
Work situations that interfere with their health, education, and mental and physical growth compromise children’s future and there is the need for a concerted effort by all, parliamentarians, non-governmental organisations, and local authorities, consumers and the public in general, to focus on shaping a world fit for children.