CHILD LABOUR IT IS?

Child labour as prescribed by the ILO is any work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. In Ghana, the Children Act 1998 states that the minimum age for admission of children into employment is 15. However, children may be employed at age 13 to do light work while the minimum age for engagement of persons in hazardous work is eighteen.

Although many Ghanaian children are involved in economic activities that are not detrimental to their development and education, several others are compelled to engage in work which adversely affects them.

Not all work done by children can be classified as child labour since these activities done by these children are intended to assist their family or to earn pocket monies in an attempt to fend for themselves.

In its extreme forms, child labour involves children being separated from their families, exposed to grave hazards and or left to fend for themselves in the streets of large cities, often at a very young age.

However, how do we describe the situation where children are not forced out of their families nor forced to work but out of their own initiative leave home to the big cities to find jobs in order to fend for themselves at a young age?

I chanced upon these two kids aged 15 and 17 who travelled from the northern part of Ghana to Accra to scavenge dump sites in search of scraps to sell as a source of livelihood. They tell me that they decided to leave their homes for Accra since their parents couldn’t see them through school. In a day, they say they make as much as GHC50 from selling the scrap. Out of their daily sales, they save some of the amount and send some to their parents for their upkeep.

These children were captured scavenging for scrap to sell in order to fend for themselves. (PLEASE CRITIQUE THIS PHOTOGRAPH)

So I ask, will this also be described as child labour?