The Western Regional Minister-nominee, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, has bemoaned the growing perception of child labour in the cocoa sector which he described as “grossly exaggerated.”
During his vetting by Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Dr. Afriyie insisted the child labour was not a problem in the cocoa sector and blamed a cultural disconnect for the perception.
“You will be surprised that child labour per say is not a big issue in the cocoa industry in Ghana now. You have to segregate the cultural dimensions of our social setup from what people label as child labour,” he explained to the vetting committee when the topic was raised.
“That child labour thing especially in the cocoa industry, I am happy to report, is largely and grossly exaggerated in this country because it gives our country a bad image,” the Minister-nominee added.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, during the vetting, interposed that there may be some legitimacy to the concerns with child labour given US department of state has recently downgraded Ghana citing child labour in the agriculture sector, and in particular the cocoa sector.
The US department of state notes that Ghana continues to engage in the worst forms of child labour, including in fishing and harvesting cocoa.
Dr. Afriyie retorted, saying he took “strong exception” to such claims adding that “perhaps we have to educate those who are labelling us as such.”
“This problem is an image problem which is intertwined with our cultural values. If you come to my village and at about 4 pm, you find a child turning the cocoa over, I do not classify that as child labour.”
“I am not denying that you will not get a case of child labour or child abuse in this society. All I am saying is, that kind of stigmatisation, the child labour thing has got its own cultural dimension that they will lump all together,” Dr. Afriyie noted later on when confronted with some concerns like the proximity of children to dangerous tools, strenuous working condition and chemicals like pesticides.
According to a survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), more than 21 percent of children in Ghana are still engaged in child labour.
A report which was released by the GSS in 2014 indicated that 21.8 per cent of children aged 5 to 17, representing about 1.9 million children, were engaged in child labour while 14.5 percent of the children covered in the survey were engaged in hazardous child labour.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
