Accra, July 18, GNA - A major setback in addressing child labour issues is the constant change of Ministers at the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment since a most of the time is used in sensitising the New Ministers.

Ms Elizabeth Hagan, Head of Child Labour Unit, said this at a two-day workshop for journalists under the theme: 93Mobilizing the Ghanaian Society against the Worst Forms of Child Labour=94 in Accra on Tuesday.

She said, each time a Minister was replaced the Ministry would have to halt programmes, which included policy implementation, in order to sensitise the new Minister.

Ms Hagan said child labour in its various forms affected every aspect of the social and economic sector of the country, citing a high pool of illiteracy, high population growth, spread of disease due to overcrowding, spread of HIV/AIDS and high crime rate as some of the effects.

She noted that issues of child labour demanded urgent attention and exposure from the media saying this was the only way to reach out to the people and to seek to address the issue.

Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique, Minster of Manpower, Youth and Employment, said child labour no longer remained a social issue but an economic, legal, ethical and even a political one.

"This posture is rightly so because it is becoming increasing evident that the menace of child labour, its causes and consequences, cuts across all spheres of our development."

He said the Ministry was building a technical capacity through the establishment of an integrated child labour monitoring system, which included national database on child labour and an administrative component that would ensure that the data collected was applied to local and national policy.

Alhaji Saddique said the initiative would result in positive social change towards child labour and its issues.

"We are also promoting viable alternatives to child labour, such as skills training and apprenticeship development, which programmes are being beefed up to ensure that when children are removed from hazardous and exploitative work, they are given opportunities to acquire skills that will earn them decent jobs and sustainable sources of livelihood," he said.

He said laws on child labour such as the Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560), the Human Trafficking Act 2005 and the Education Act would be fully enforced to stem the tide of child labour in its worst forms.