Mr. Owusu-Amankwa said from some observations made so far, he has come to the conclusion that most children are subjected to child labour not because their parents are poor but the fact that their parents believed that they went through similar situation to become what they are today.
The MP who was expressing his worry about the high level of child labour in his constituency indicated that most parents forced their wards to engage in income generating activities at an early age because they feel it is a cycle that must continue, hence they pass comments like “at your age I was providing for myself and the entire household”.
Though he admitted to poverty being one of the major reasons for child labour, he noted that most parents of children in child labour are very capable of providing the needs of their children but failed to do so because of that mind set.
According to him, high numbers of children are engaged in economic activities ranging from hawking, “kayaye”, scrap collection especially those from Moshie Zongo and this is responsible for high schools drop outs in the constituency.
Meanwhile, the MP has initiated measures to address the problem by first trying to help parents to appreciate the enormity of the situation and a call for change of mind. So far meetings have been held with parents and other stakeholders on the issue. The next step however, is to raise funds to assist these children to get back to the classroom, he stated.
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