The Deputy Director for Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations has revealed that many parents and guardians of children unintentionally practice child labor.
In an interview on Happy 98.9FM’s Happy Morning Show, Mr. Antwi described child labor as any practice or activity that hinders a child from accessing education or detrimental to a child’s health. In accordance with Article 28 Clause 2 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, “Every child has the right to be protected from
engaging in work that constitutes a threat to his health, education or development.”
He mentioned that many guardians tend to treat their wards the same way their parents treated them as children, assuming that these methods of upbringing are the best for their wards. “Many parents do not know that how they are raising their children is child labor; in the olden days our parents did not know about these things.”
He advised that parents desist from burdening children, especially between the ages of 13-14 years with difficult work or work involving a long time span. “Parents must be mindful about the kind of work they give to their children; children within the age range of 13-14 are to be given light work; work that is not tedious and can be completed with extra time to rest.”
He noted that these children must perform their respective duties at homes within the timespan of 2 hours at most per day accumulating to a total of 14 hours every week. “No child should be assigned to work for more than 2 hours because the child would have to rest and in most cases, will have to also prepare for school.”