The Founder of the Global March against Child Labour, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, will arrive in Ghana on Friday to learn about the progress being made to eradicate forced labour and child labour on cocoa farms.

As part of his visit, Mr Satyarthi would hold meetings with government officials and other international organizations operating in Ghana including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and local non-governmental organizations that advocate the elimination of child labour in Ghana

A statement signed by Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe, Head of Programmes, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), said Mr. Satyarthi’s visit would also be a platform to strengthen the Global March Movement, particularly the partnership between trade unions, NGOs and other civil society groups in the fight against child labour and decent work for adults.

Mr. Satyarthi, who is also the President of the Global Campaign for Education, will also appoint a Ghanaian as the Anglophone Africa Coordinator for the Global March against Child Labour while in Ghana.

Also on his agenda is a meeting to introduce and share the “Quadrangular Paradigm” which establishes a necessity in their linkage on the issues of child labour, illiteracy, poverty and violence against children while strengthening the movement against child labour for free and good quality education for all children.

Mr. Satyarthi, born in 1954 in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, India, gave up a lucrative career as an electrical engineer to dedicate his life for the cause of child bonded labourers.

He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980, which is currently used to symbolize the struggle against child labour and child servitude.

Mr Satyarthi spearheaded the rescue of over 75,000 bonded child labourers from brick kilns, carpet looms and stone quarries and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation through the three rehabilitation centres that he and his organization had established.

His achievements as an international child labour activist are numerous. Among them was the lead role he played in bringing together over 20,000 NGOs around the world to participate in the 80,000-kilometre long Global March against Child Labour.

Spanning 103 countries, including Ghana, over 7.2 million people globally participated in it and this led to the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 1999.

Source: GNA