Oti tops child labour cases – ActionAid reveals
The Oti Region recorded the highest number of Child Labour cases with 20.8 per cent cases, out of sixteen Regions in Ghana according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census figures.
The North-East Region booked the second position with 11.4 per cent cases, Savannah recording 9.9 per cent cases to secure the third position, Upper West came forth with 9.3 per cent cases, with Greater Accra at the bottom with 0.4 per cent cases.
Mr Jamil Tanimu, a Programme Officer with ActionAid, disclosed this at a day’s training workshop at Kadjebi for Journalists in the Oti Region.
The workshop was meant to equip the media practitioners with the relevant information on Modern Slavery for easy dissemination to the populace.
Mr Jamil said ActionAid with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad), was implementing a project titled: “Combating Modern Slavery in Ghana” in Oti, Upper West, Upper East and Bono Regions to help reduce the canker if not eliminate it.
He said Ghana had been identified as the transit point for modern day slavery, so there was the need to increase sensitisation on the prevalence of the issue through collaboration since it impacted negatively on the country’s development.
The Programme Officer said to identify the issue of Modern Slavery; one had to look for the ACT, MEAN and PURPOSE as it happened every day and everywhere.
Mr Jamil said modern day slavery which manifest in the form of commercial sexual exploitation, child labour, trafficking, debt bondage, forced marriage and domestic servitude and forced labour was quite common in Ghana, but unfortunately, received little or no attention.
He thus appealed to media practitioners to be agents of change to educate community members on the forms, what constituted modern slavery, factors contributing to it and its effects because ActionAid could not fight modern slavery alone.
Miss Mawunyo Aziave, a Consultant to ActionAid Ghana, called on the media practitioners to communicate well on the issue of modern slavery to help reduce it.
She said globally, 40 million people were enslaved daily, 21 million forced labour, 15 forced marriage, four million sexually exploited and that 71 per cent were women and girls, while 25 per cent were children.
She said 23 per cent were in Africa with the highest prevalence rate of 7.6 victims for every 1,000 people and thus, called on the participants to report objectively on the issues and report to the appropriate agencies for action when they observed or see their occurrences.
Mr Baba Adams, a beneficiary, on behalf of the media, thanked the organisers for the training.
Mr Adams, also a UTV and GTV Reporter, said they would help change society since the issue of modern slavery was “wickedness” and inhuman which needed to stop with the support of all.
The participants identified poverty, unemployment, culture, parental neglect, ignorance, among others as some of the causes of modern-day slavery.
Source: GNA