By Tony Okafor, Awka
The Anambra State Government has kicked off a three-day event with a roadwork in Awka, the state capital, to mark this year’s World Day Against Child Labour.
The government, during the occasion, restated that engaging a child in harsh labour that would prevent him or her from acquiring basic formal education and developing physically, mentally, morally and socially was an offence punishable by law in the state.
The event which was tagged ‘Social Justice for All, End Child Labour’, was spear-headed by the Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare cum Beecharity Outlook Foundation, a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO)
While commenting on the viability of the walk as well as the event, the Chairman of the event and Commissioner for Information, Sir Paul Nwosu said every child deserved to be loved and that it would be improper to engage a child of a certain age category in a particular labour.
He said“Children are to be cared for, they are not to be enslaved; children are to be educated, they are not to be used as house helps.
“Not that house help is actually wrong but do not maltreat them or starve them. The other day the commissioner (of Women and Social Welfare) had to travel all the way to Lagos to intervene for a child, a domestic abused child and an under-aged.
“These are what we want the people to understand, that it is improper and that they should begin to care for children and treat children differently.’’
The Women and Social Welfare Commissioner, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Obinabo while commenting on the walk said, “We are creating awareness so that people will know that it is illegal to labour any child, whether your biological child or anybody else’s child.
Obinabo said,`We are saying no to child labour, stop abusing children; stop maltreating the children you are living with; we want to make Ndi-Anambra to be aware of the legal implication of labouring any child’’.
She added that the government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo had stood out to help the children and to see that nobody would abuse any child again and go unpunished in the state.
The workout kicked off from the Aroma Junction and culminated in a visit to a victim of domestic labour/brutality who was receiving treatment at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, COOTH, Amaku.
The 3-day event, it was gathered, would continue on June 13 with Media Engagements and a Public Lecture respectively. The lecture will hold at the Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre from 10 am. (MOI)
