<<Print>>

Government has been urged to create more Child Labour Free Zones across the country to strengthen efforts at eliminating worse forms of child labour in the country in the midst of covid-19.

Child Research for Action and Development Agency (CRADA), a child right protection organization in Kumasi, which made the call, said children needed to be protected now than ever, in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement signed by Nana Antwi Boasiako Brempong, Executive Secretary and issued in Kumasi to mark this year’s World Day against Child Labour, which falls on Friday, June 12, CRADA said the covid-19 pandemic with its associated global socio-economic challenges, was likely to increase rates of labour, especially in a developing country like Ghana.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the global economic downturn caused by the covid-19 crisis, including; massive global losses is likely to increase rates of child labour.
This particular challenge gives CRADA a big headache. This is because in our circumstances as a developing country, when the school system suffers a setback, the direct effect is for children to be engaged in labour and its worse forms, especially in rural communities”, the statement pointed out.

It was in this light that CRADA was asking whether Ghana, which had ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on Child Labour, had indeed taken effective measures to prohibit and eliminate worse forms of labour in Ghana.

It said though Ghana was making headway in establishing protocols and guidelines for establishing child labour free zones manual, there was still room for improvement.

The statement stressed the need for the government to widely utilize the protocols and guidelines which was launched at Kwabena Akwa in the Atwima_Mponua District and replicate it across the country to make Ghana a child labour free zone despite the negative impact of covid-19.