The Invisible Army
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


SCOPE AND CONCEPT OF CHILD LABOUR

An army is growing in Ghana today, and though invisible, is larger than any other force and more pervasive.

Instead of guns and ammo, it is armed with weapons of farming tools, shoe-shine boxes, fishing nets, sledge hammers, “go-to-hells” and head pans.

These unseen soldiers form the army of child laborers in Ghana, and they are growing.
Soldiers of this army use their weapons to fight for themselves and their families. They go to the battle fields as early as dawn and return late at night often tired, exhausted, worn out and even hurt and bruised from the day’s battle.

Children are deprived of their basic rights as human beings and are subjected to activities that are detrimental to their health and well being. Their engagement dispossesses them from the opportunity to experience a normal life and develop as a child.

Esther Kutorkor Kotey, an eleven year old child labourer at Chorkor says she doesn’t go to school because the family can’t afford it. She spends her days at the beach helping the fishermen haul fish in order to get money for food.
“When I am hungry I carry the fish of the fish mongers to the road side to get money for food” she says “At times I go and cry for my mother to give me money when I am hungry.”
Children are involved in labour in different sectors – mining, quarrying, farming, cocoa, fishing, domestic servitude and street vending.

A recent report by the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare clearly indicated that almost 10 per cent of the child population in Ghana is engaged in child labour.

With 54 per cent of Ghana’s entire population of 24 million being children, that is a considerably high figure.

“The problem seems to be quite huge, in terms of the number of children who are engaged in illegal work” says Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Child’s Rights International, one of the prominent children’s rights organizations in Ghana.

Children carry out domestic chores assigned to them by their parents or guardians as a way of training and integrating them into the society’s norms and culture. Nevertheless, some children go beyond these tasks of integration to undergo work that is suited for older people.

In the fishing community of Chorkor, young Kutorkor Kotey engages in unsuitable work for a child. “I go and help the fishermen to pull the net from the sea” she says, “I sit and help with the rope as the fishermen pull the net from the water.”

According to the ILO, the majority of children in child labour come from large, poorly educated families of more than five children living in rural areas with little to no access to basic amenities such as schools and hospitals.


These activities are an affront to the fundamental human rights of children and a serious threat to the socio-economic development of the country. It deprives them of the right to develop and experience the joy of being educated.

CAUSES AND CONCEQUENCES

There are difference factors contributing to the prevalence of child labour in Ghana.

They can be traced to rooted traditional beliefs, cultural practices, customs, economic conditions, increasing break-up of traditional family structures and the death of a parent.

According to Festus Longmatey, Field Coordinator at Child’s Rights International, poverty is the underlining factor.

“If they have the means to employ labour, they wouldn’t use their children” he says, “because the means are not there, they are forced to use their kids. It all boils down to poverty.”

Madam Elizabeth Danquah, Executive Director of Parent & Child foundation, an organization responsible for the implementation of International Labour Organization (ILO) activities to eradicate the use of child laborers in the Volta region, feels that the lack of parental care and social amenities are the major causes of child labour in the country.

“Parents of children involved in child labour have the belief that the act is to help integrate the children into the community and make them independent in future” she says.

Nii Kukrudu II, Chief Fisherman at Chorkor said it is the tradition of the area to train the first son in the trade of their father. Fishermen train their children how to fish so they can one day take over from their parents. “When the children are 10 years we start to train and teach them how to fish” he says, “some times they go to school and fish on weekends.”
These children sometimes skip school to accompany their parents to their work sites.

One of the principal causes is the traditional perception about who children are and who owns them.

“People believe that children are their property”, says Appiah of Child’s Rights. “Parents tend to look at their children from that angle, without granting them their fundamental human rights.”

Some cultural practices such as higher income families hiring children from poor families place children in an environment where they are vulnerable to exploitation. Families do this without considering the consequences or considering the price to be paid in the future.

Children perform domestic duties, working long hours and sometimes suffering abuse at the hands of their employers. They earn a small amount of money for food and other services, such as accommodation and clothing.

One of the gravest abuses against children is neglect. Many children fall through social safety nets which fail to provide the necessary care and services, and children find themselves in some form of labour to support themselves and their families.

In Chorkor, Kutorkor has to find ways to manage when she doesn’t receive care from her parents. “ I told my daddy to take me to school, but he told me to shut up. When I got to class one my mother asked me to stop.”

They engage in economic activity and become innovative and entrepreneurial to support their own well being.

Farming families are often poor and therefore use the children as laborers to cut down cost of hiring older people to do the work.

Other children are sometimes taken from their families by business people and transported from rural areas to urban centers with the assurance of being educated and catered for.

They get to their various destinations to work under conditions that are harmful to their health and well-being.

It has also been observed that some parents give away their children out of greed and self-fulfillment.

“Parents think that it is the responsibility of the children to help them” says Longmatey of Child Rights, “Most of the parents are not really educated or sensitized.”

Madam Danquah added that some parents are accustomed to certain traditions which are very difficult to change.

“A lot of children look after themselves even though they have parents” says Danquah, “These children go to the market places to find a few Cedis for themselves” she said.

They send their children during school hours to hawk on the streets and work in order to afford a better standard of living for the whole family.

FAILURES

The government of Ghana has lent its support to the International Conventions and Declarations on the Elimination of (the Worst Forms of) Child Labour and the Rights of the Child. The country faces a huge challenge of meeting its national plan of action for achieve the goals of the Convention.

There is inefficiency in the traditional system in terms of responding to the social demands of children. Customarily if a child is orphaned due to death of a parent or other circumstances, the next of kin assumes responsibility for the child. However, because of the breakdown of these traditional structures, many children are left without a guardian or proper care.

The Children’s Act, drafted in 1998, enshrines the basic rights of children and the responsibilities of duty bearers. However, government has failed to fully enforcing this Act and other international child related conventions it has signed.

Bright Appiah adds, “The breakdown of the social structure and the failure of government to strengthen the child protection system, to be able to care for people who fall [through the cracks], contributes to the prevalence of child labour in Ghana. It’s both ways.”

The right of children is often seen as an alien culture.

“The society is not fully embracing that children have rights” says Appiah, “people feel that we are training children to become deviants and to resist traditional structures.”

The media, which has a crucial responsibility in educating the public, has been unsuccessful in covering children’s issues and human rights content in general. Human rights issues are generally seen as not being attractive enough to readers.

“Though there are some instances where you see the media reporting issues about children” says Appiah, “When you study and watch the trend of discussions, it’s more of the political issues that get coverage rather than looking at the social issues that affect children.”

The humanitarian community in general has grievances about the way human rights are reported, often stating that issues are only superficially glanced over or that the coverage is often aligned with a political motive.

Appiah adds “The information and the necessary steps you have to take in terms of reporting on children has not been the best.”

INTERVENTIONS

According to article 28 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, “Every child has the right to be protected from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to his or her health, education or development.”

The law also sets a minimum employment age of 15 years and prohibits night work and certain types of hazardous labor for those less than 18 years of age. It levies fines and sentences violators to prison.

Since Ghana ratified ILO convention on the worst forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention 182) in 2000, the country has been making strenuous efforts to address the issue. There is a national policy on child labour and cabinet has endorsed a national plan of action (NPA) for the elimination of worst forms of child labour.

Ghana has partnered with various organizations both locally and internationally, such as the ILO and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to help curb the cancer of child labour.

Francesco d’Ovidio, Chief Technical Advisor of ILO, said their organization has partnered with others like the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and the Ghana Journalist’s Association (GJA) to help reduce the prevalence of child labour.

Recently, the government introduced a full program to examine how to eliminate the use of child labour in the cocoa sector.

“That is only one sector” says Appiah, “but this is bold in terms of formulating policy and addressing the problem. It sends out the signal that we are all recognizing the fact that child labour is an issue that we will have to address.”