The Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah has issued a strong warning to parents and guardians against using their children to engage in laborious activities.

According to a publication by the United Nations, ''Children around the world are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them. However, they are classified as child labourers when they are either too young to work, or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development. In the least developed countries, slightly more than one in four children (ages 5 to 17) are engaged in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development''.

Africa is also said to rank "highest among regions both in the percentage of children in child labour — one-fifth — and the absolute number of children in child labour — 72 million. Asia and the Pacific ranks second highest in both these measures — 7% of all children and 62 million in absolute terms are in child labour in this region", the United Nations has stated.

This is a worrying situation for Africa, particularly Ghana, as many children as young as four/five years old or even less are seen on the streets either hawking or begging for alms.

Saturday, June 12, 2021 marked the World Day Against Child Labour aimed at raising awareness and finding lasting solutions to end child labour.

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' in relation to the World Day Against Child Labour, Bright Appiah advised parents, guardians and the general public to desist from overusing children or using under-aged children to do hard work.

He revealed that the Child Rights Act doesn't permit any child to work for more than four hours as it constitutes child labour.

"In Ghana, if you are below the age of 15 year, you can't work above a certain hours. A child shouldn't work beyond 4 hours. So, once you are able to exceed that, the indicator will pick you that you're involved in child labour and the reason why we have stated that is because the children who are engaged in domestic activities, one of the critical things that disturb them is inadequate sleep.

''Maybe the child will sleep around 11 and wake up around 3 O'clock and have to return to work again, so once you're able to do that, we will say that you're in the worse forms of child labour. Also, in this country, no child is allowed to work past 8 pm. Any work that the child is doing, by 8 pm, he or she must stop. So, if you exceed that limit and the kind of work the child is doing is something that will hinder his studies, then it will also be classified as the worse form of child labour," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.

He also pointed out the use of children to do adverts for monetary benefits is described as child labour.

He warned; ''A child should not be economically gainful to a system or a family. So, for instance, if you're doing an advert, in our legislation, it's considered as a capacity building for the child because it's something that, when the child does, it will be beneficial to the child when he or she grows. But, as the child is young and doing the advert, whatever proceeds that comes; it should not be beneficial to anybody but it should be beneficial to the child."

Mr. Appiah hoped parents and guardians will take note of his submissions, ensuring their child don't become pawns for labour.