THE Ministry of Labour on Wednesday held its annual walk and awareness programme in observance of World Day Against Child Labour 2024, under the theme, “Let’s Act on Our Commitments: End Child Labour!”

Leading the walk was Chief Labour Officer Dhaneshwar Deonarine, who delivered remarks at a ceremony held at the ministry’s forecourt on Brickdam, Georgetown.

Deonarine revealed that since 2020, the ministry has worked steadfastly to implement the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour, and shared that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) statistics in 2020 revealed that more than 160 million children worldwide were victims of child labour.

He disclosed that Guyana has ratified key conventions by the ILO that guard against child labour. These are: the Minimum Age Convention, the Worst form of Child Labour Convention, the Forced Labour Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Present at the awareness programme after the walk, was Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, who gave brief remarks.

Minister Persaud noted that in order to deal with child labour at every level, we must be able to recognise it.

She said that as a move towards this recognition, it is imperative that education and awareness be paramount in our strategic direction towards rooting out child labour.

“It simply means every child should understand what child labour is and how child labour can rob them of their fullest potential, rob them of their dignity and their rights [and] many things that will aid in their self-development, including education.”

She added, “As such, today let us not only act on our commitment, but let us assess ourselves to see where we’re at with regard to those commitments. For us to act, we must be united, for us to act, our efforts must be integrated, and for us to act we must have a very good strategy that we can utilise in that action.”

The minister expressed that she is happy to say that overtime, the child labour policy has been worked on and will be working in tandem with the Ministry of Labour through the Child Care and Protection Agency, on facets of that policy, so that we can ensure that the policy guides our national efforts.

In addition, Minister Persaud underscored that the national action plan which exists requires the commitment and the firm stance on those commitments to ensure that we have measurable targets where we can access the impact of our efforts.

“Coming out of today’s walk, I had a really good conversation with the Chief Labour Officer, and we have made several decisions on how the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security (MoHSSS) can work and strengthen our relationship with Ministry of Labour, through training of our own officers across the Ministry of Human Services so that they can be more impactful when they go out there, and they engage with children in the communities, families in the communities, and all the spheres under which they serve,” she added.

In addition to this, they looked at the merits of hosting a conference focusing on child labour, among the key stakeholders, so that they can work towards the removal of child labour.

Moreover, labour officers will continue to visit secondary schools across the country, to interact with students on the effects child labour.

The ministry also plans to visit at least 40 secondary schools during this month.

Awareness walks are scheduled for Regions One and Four, along with a child art competition for children ages eight to 16.