Kpando, June 13, GNA- Miss Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, Deputy Minister of Manpower Youth and Employment (MYE) on Tuesday said government would ensure a more holistic and frontal attack on child labour issues by developing a Time Bound Programme (TBP) to deal effectively with the menace.

She said the national TBP was an integral part of a social protection strategy and integrated framework for linking relevant actions undertaken by different partners and sectors in tackling the problem in a coordinated and sustainable manner.

Miss Osei-Opare said these in her keynote address during the celebration of the National World Against Child Labour Day at Kpando in the Volta Region.

The day, which was under the theme "The Future Harvest: Agriculture Without Child Labour" was organized by the Manpower, Youth and Employment Ministry, Ghana Employers Association and the General Agricultural Worker Union (GAWU) of the TUC and supported by ILO/IPEC and other development partners.

Miss Osei-Opare said in line with international concerns, government was implementing a national programme for the elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour (WFCL) in the cocoa industry. She said the programme, which took off in 2006, sought to eliminate WFCL in the cocoa sub-sector by 2011, while it endeavours to eliminate the problem in other sectors of the economy by 2015.

Miss Osei-Opare said this would cover the entire 67 cocoa growing districts, which is equivalent to 43 administrative districts of the country within the time frame.

She said globally, 245 million children, according to ILO, were found in Child Labour with 170 million of them in hazardous work. She said statistics shows a decline in Child Labour by 11 percent whilst that of hazardous work has fallen by 33 percent. On the national front, Miss Osei-Opare said available data from the Ghana Child Labour Survey of 2003 indicated that 2.4 million children between the ages of 5-17 years were economically active. She said about 1.27 million of this number were found to be in activities classified as Child Labour out of which, 242,000 were in hazardous work.

Miss Osei-Opare said in Ghana over 57 percent of child labourers are found in the agricultural sector.

She said these children are robbed of childhood, denied basic healthcare, education, adequate nutrition and protection. This she said had given rise to concerns by international and national concern groups as well as individuals, demanding measures from governments to mitigate effects of the situation on the kids. She said government's commitment to eliminate Child Labour is demonstrated through legislation, policies and the ratification of international conventions to stem the problem.

Miss Osei-Opare said the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) launched in 2006, is one intervention to generate employment opportunities for the youth and also promote self-employment to speed up the elimination by WFCL.

She said government is putting in place interventions to accommodate the 17.7 percent rise in school enrolment in 2006. Mr. Joseph Nayan, Deputy Volta Regional Minister said Child Labour was prevalent along the Volta Lake and has denied children of formal education.

He said society has done little to curtail the situation and called on civil society groups, chiefs, religious organizations, NGOs and development partners to join hands to combat the menace.

Mr. Samuel Kanga, GAWU Secretary-General, called on parliamentarians to advocate for the change of name of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to District Development Fund and that two percent of the fund be reserved for child development issues. There were fraternal greetings from the ILO, FAO, UNICEF and the Ghana Employers Association among others.