Madam Fatima Mahani, the Tema Regional Director of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has urged citizens to prohibit child labor and allow youth to enjoy their development. According to UNICEF estimates, around 21% of all children in Ghana aged five to 17 years are involved in child labor, and 14% are engaged in hazardous forms of labor.
In rural regions, this was twice as common. “Child labor is a detrimental coping technique for poorer households, and the majority of youngsters work in the agriculture and fishing industries. “The vast majority of working children in all regions are unpaid family employees between the ages of five and seven,” Madam Mahami said during the conference.
Insufficient resources for the prevention and response to child labor, insufficient services to support working children or prevent child labor, and family reliance on revenue generated by children owing to extreme poverty were also mentioned as concerns by Tema Regional Director (CHRAJ).
Because poverty is the leading source of child labor, Mr. John Ato Brebor, Senior Principal Investigator at CHRAJ, said during the discussion that the government needs to reassess social protection policies that would reduce poverty and foster long-term human capital development.
