ADVANCING WOMEN AND CHILDREN!

PART 1:

9th August, 2016

Why will a child be made to labor and not enjoy the joys of childhood?
Why will a child be handed tools to EARN a living and not pens and pencils to LEARN?
The issue of CHILD LABOR.....

Each day, the streets are flooded with children who are engaged in various trading activities that harm or keep them from attending school.
Some of these children are found engaged in slavery-like jobs that threaten their physical, mental, emotional, moral and social wellbeing.

Society may have forgotten that these vulnerable young ones deserve better than to be handed to the streets and market centers to labor for what to eat and drink for survival.
These children are forced out of homes like sheep being sent out to a pack of wolves.
What more do we expect of such a rampant situation, if not an increase in illiteracy rate, teenage pregnancies, social vices, child prostitution, illegal drug dealing and many other dangers associated with such childhood encounters?  

A great man asserted, "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children"

It is in line with this quote that I inquire, Why will we make life on this earth unbearable for the custodians from which we borrow the land?

Why would we subject and place our young ones into such heart bleeding positions?
A position where if they do not go out to labor, they will have nothing to eat.
A position where if they do not go out to labor, they will be rained with insults and beatings from the very people who have been irresponsible in their actions yet occupying positions  at home as parents, guardians etc.

A child is meant to LEARN and not to EARN.
A child is to be given BOOKS to learn and not TOOLS to earn a living.
Children have only few years to be a child but have their whole lives after childhood, to work a profession or job.
More so, education is the birthright of a child.
So why deny them their rights, childhood joy and privileges?  

There exists certain laws, measures and standards that have been put in place to eliminate child labor.
The Constitution of Ghana sets the minimum employment age at 15 years, with 13 year olds for light work that cannot harm him or her as well as his or her education.
The law is also against making children work at night, making provisions for fines and imprisonment for violators.
However, these Constitutional laws have proved futile as child labor is woefully ongoing in various countries of which Ghana is not an exception.
We have children who are made to carry on their heads load of heavy goods that are meant for a truck not human.
We have children who are exposed to harsh weather conditions and made to stay for days and nights at sea to fish.
There are a number of young children in Ghana sweating blood in stone quarrying and construction activities.
Today, it is common to see children as early as 5 am on the streets, begin their daily activities of running helter skelter to sell 'pure water', plantain chips, boiled eggs, oranges, what have you?

Poverty, parental irresponsibility, limited or no access to education, high rate of unemployment, limited laws or prohibitions regarding child labor, amongst others are the obvious and global reasons for child labor being on the rampant.

Children and families living in abject poverty, who may struggle to get a piece of meal for the day may solely rely on sending their children out to trade for survival.

The high level of poverty rate in various countries have forced many children into positions of becoming child laborers.

The wide gap between the rich and the poor in recent years, have forcefully positioned millions of children to drop out of school into the labor force.

Education plays a pivotal role in putting the canker of child labor to check.
Children of school going age are totally denied access to their basic right to education.
Whilst others have to sell before and after school hours to cater for their basic needs.
Children with little or no form of education have the greatest likelihood to suffer from child labour than their counterparts who have received otherwise.

More so, parental irresponsibility on the part of some parents who do not make adequate preparations before producing children has placed financial constraints on such families and so, are left with no alternative than to send their children out to labor for themselves.
The responsibility of parents to cater for their children have been wrongly shifted to overburden children as child laborers.

In addition, a country with high unemployment rate, with keen competition for jobs by prospective workers and limited job vacancies in organizations in the country, may comply parents to send their children out in search of ways to attain their basic needs.
Wages or salaries received by some breadwinners may be too little to manage the home and as such may have to send their children out to work and complement their efforts.
Such children get engaged with various labor activities whether or not they are illegal, threatening, highly exploitative, hazardous...

Also, in some homes where old people dwell, especially those on retirement with no retirement benefits to fall on, send for children from villages to the urban areas to engage in menial jobs to cater for such elderly and retired ones.
Children as young as 10 years are sent from villages to urban areas to serve as domestic workers, who may have to labor on the streets to cater for the family.
This practice thereby leads to children becoming victims of  physical and sexual abuse in society.

To curb the issue of child labor, strict legal framework must be established to clearly identify, prevent and eliminate child labor.

In addition, labor standards of a country must be reviewed to protect the interest of these vulnerable children.
The Constitutional framework should make provisions for decent working conditions to children who are legally active to work, without any form of discrimination in terms of being guaranteed the minimum wage rate or possibly better.

The government must ensure that all children below the statutory required employment age are in school and remain in school.
Strict laws must be enforced regarding the protection of children against child labor.
Child labor is child exploitation and highly a crime. Perpetrators and culprits must be duly sanctioned as stipulated in the Constitution.

Each community must have a monitoring committee set up and tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that children below the required working age are not found going contrary to the Constitutional law.

Parents and guardians must exhibit much concern in regards to the welfare and education of their children.
They must take up responsibilities and not shift them to children to bear.

As asserted by one youth activist, E.K.D.Oppong "One core responsibility of parents is to invest in the minds of their children; educating them beyond the limited scope of schooling. A child's mind well nurtured with books grows to be a thinking adults. It is not magic, but a basic principle to personal growth and societal development"

Other stakeholders such as NGOs, Organizations, Activists etc must intensify their fight against child labor.

Children ought to enjoy their childhood days and moments and not to labor their way through life.

This article is a wake up call to the State, institutions, organizations and various bodies responsible for enforcing laws and protecting the interest of children to rise and deal with this absurd situation of child labor.

If we want to develop and ensure the progress of our country, then we should develop a bright future for the children of our land.
In a unified voice, let us say NO to CHILD LABOR.

-Joyce Ohenewaa Kwapong
+233(0)267968373
joycekwapong@gmail.com           
Activist, Women and Children.
University of Ghana, Accra City Campus.

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