Child Rights International (CRI), a non-governmental organization that advocates for the rights of children has called on the government to coordinate planning, implementation and response to child labour activities in the cocoa sector and ensure regulatory bodies comply with existing laws for curbing child labour.
It also said Occupational safety and health in working environments for children, should be enhanced while calling for sensitization of cocoa communities about the safety risks and health consequences facing children working on cocoa farms and the importance of education.
Existing community mechanisms for child protection, it said, should be harnessed with structures for delivering social welfare at the community level such as traditional authorities and other stakeholders.
This is contained in the Executive Summary of the 2021 Child Labour Monitoring System Report released by Child Rights International.
The report disclosed that a total of 33,180 children representing 64.8% are at a high risk of child labour in the cocoa-growing communities in Ghana.
According to the organization, a slightly higher proportion of male children (64.1%) are at a higher risk of child labour than female children while about 41% of households have at least one child at high risk of child labour.
It indicated that with a commitment to protect children and ensure they grow in a safe environment, CRI in collaboration with its partners working to tackle issues of child labour and child protection in the cocoa-growing communities in Ghana
The report is based on data collected from August 2020 to December 2021 by using the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System.
The outcome of the report reflects the use of Tools 1 and 2 in measuring the incidence of child labour in households and the state of these families while Phase 2 of the report used Tool 3 to provide remediation for children and measure interventions that have been implemented within cocoa-growing communities.
It indicated that the incidence of hazardous child labour activities is highest among children engaged in cocoa activities (19.3%) while about 17% of households have at least one child engaged in hazardous child labour.
It noted as part of the remediation, Child Rights International and its partners have developed 906 Community registers in 35 project districts in seven regions of the country with a total of 44,699 households reached.
191,426, it said, are household members made up of 94,774 males and 96,652 females.
CRI expressed its commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560) of the constitution and envisions a society where children can find their identity, realize their worth and develop their full potential in a safe and supportive environment within the social protection net of the country.
CRI is also committed to providing continuous support for child participation and social protection as well as ensuring that children’s voices and contributions are recognized and valued in society, reaffirming their faith in a better and brighter future.
Source: Mypublisher24.com
