Concerted Efforts To End Begging For Alms By Children
Although the World Day Against Child Labour is celebrated on June 12 every year, this year (2018) the International Labour Organisation, (ILO) is organising a joint campaign with the World Day for Safety and Health at Work which is celebrated on April 28 every year to create awareness and help end child labour in all forms as well as improve safety and health of young workers. Safety and health at work as well as child labour border on the human rights of young people across the globe. These two issues fall under Sustainable Development Goals Eight with a target which enjoins countries to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern day slavery and human trafficking, secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
While the World focuses on the major aspects of child labour such as child slavery, prostitution and trafficking there is another phenomenon of child labour where children are involved in begging. In almost every major town and city begging is unfortunately, a big practice. In Wa, the regional capital of the Upper West Region, there is a group of boys who walk together begging for alms with large empty tomato tins strapped around their shoulders. They leave home in the morning and return in the evening. These children are denied the opportunity to education. They usually roam the markets and lorry stations, moving from one food vendor to the other or from one shop and stall to the other begging for food or money. They virtually beg for a living and are bread winners of their families. Section 87 (1) of the Children’s Act, 560 states that “no person shall engage a child in exploitative labour. Labour is exploitative if it deprives the child of health, education or development. In most communities children are involved in labour that deprives them of health, education or development. The safety of these children is equally an issue. They are vulnerable to road accidents and people who abuse them psychologically and physically.
Begging for alms may seem unhazardous; however, the act goes a long way to interfere with the child’s holistic development. Children who beg grow with the mentality that begging for alms is a way of life. Working to earn a living will become difficult for them in the future since they are used to begging. When their begging expedition fails to yield their desired outcomes, they may become social deviants engaging in robbery and other vices.
Recently, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly have undertaken an initiative aimed at ridding the streets of Accra off beggars and efforts are being made to reintegrate them into society. This initiative is commendable and it is important that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies adopt and implement the initiative in their areas to end the practice. Begging especially by minors must not be allowed to persist. All concerted efforts must be made by the State to ensure that children are not involved in activities that have the potential of undermining their total development. As the ILO creates the awareness on ensuring safety of children at work as well as ending child labour, the ILO and other agencies of the United Nations must start holding state agencies accountable to the conventions on eliminating child labour in all forms. Let us all support the fight against begging by minors in our streets.
BY: ALEX BLEGE—FREELANCE JOURNALIST.
While the World focuses on the major aspects of child labour such as child slavery, prostitution and trafficking there is another phenomenon of child labour where children are involved in begging. In almost every major town and city begging is unfortunately, a big practice. In Wa, the regional capital of the Upper West Region, there is a group of boys who walk together begging for alms with large empty tomato tins strapped around their shoulders. They leave home in the morning and return in the evening. These children are denied the opportunity to education. They usually roam the markets and lorry stations, moving from one food vendor to the other or from one shop and stall to the other begging for food or money. They virtually beg for a living and are bread winners of their families. Section 87 (1) of the Children’s Act, 560 states that “no person shall engage a child in exploitative labour. Labour is exploitative if it deprives the child of health, education or development. In most communities children are involved in labour that deprives them of health, education or development. The safety of these children is equally an issue. They are vulnerable to road accidents and people who abuse them psychologically and physically.
Begging for alms may seem unhazardous; however, the act goes a long way to interfere with the child’s holistic development. Children who beg grow with the mentality that begging for alms is a way of life. Working to earn a living will become difficult for them in the future since they are used to begging. When their begging expedition fails to yield their desired outcomes, they may become social deviants engaging in robbery and other vices.
Recently, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly have undertaken an initiative aimed at ridding the streets of Accra off beggars and efforts are being made to reintegrate them into society. This initiative is commendable and it is important that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies adopt and implement the initiative in their areas to end the practice. Begging especially by minors must not be allowed to persist. All concerted efforts must be made by the State to ensure that children are not involved in activities that have the potential of undermining their total development. As the ILO creates the awareness on ensuring safety of children at work as well as ending child labour, the ILO and other agencies of the United Nations must start holding state agencies accountable to the conventions on eliminating child labour in all forms. Let us all support the fight against begging by minors in our streets.
BY: ALEX BLEGE—FREELANCE JOURNALIST.
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