Child Labor fight intensifies

The first meeting of the National Committee created in 2014 to combat Child Labour was held in Yaounde.

At the meeting held on April 29, 2015, it was revealed that 41% of children aged five to seventeen years, nearly 2.5 million people, are in child labour situation and 85% work in the agricultural sector according to the National Statistics Institute.

Most of them work in quarries, mines, fisheries, etc. In order to eradicate the exploitation of children in Cameroon, the Prime Minister, Head of Government through a decree of August 27, 2014, created a national committee for the fight against child labor.

Its first session was held yesterday April 29, in Yaounde with the coordinator, Gregoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security (MINTSS). "The issue of child labor in Cameroon constitutes a real and major concern as millions of children are victims of various forms of exploitation in the world. It then becomes necessary but, timely and indispensable to put a stop to these excesses to save this generation and prepare a promising future, "said Grégoire Owona.

That is why the National Committee to Fight against Child Labour's mission is to provide good strategies to eradicate child labor on the national territory by 2017.

This committee's responsibilities include developing the mapping of child victims of exploitation, review strategies against child labor, to propose to the government possible measures to make them more effective and ensure the effective implementation of the strategic axes developed in the plan National Action for the Elimination of Child Labour.

These strategies will focus among others on research and knowledge of the reality on the ground, prevention, detection and punishment of perpetrators or accomplices, and protection and socio-educational rehabilitation of children.