Mr Wilberforce Owusu Ansah, Atwima-Mponua District Chief Executive, has stated that the only way to eliminate child labour in cocoa growing areas was to encourage and assist parents to enrol their children in school.
He said the introduction of the capitation grant, school feeding programme, provision of free text and exercise books as well as the construction of classroom blocks and teachers' accommodation in most rural communities, should be seen as deliberate efforts by the government and the district assemblies to entice parents to send their children to school.
Speaking at a day's workshop organised by the District Child Labour Committee at Nyinahin, Mr Owusu Ansah, advised parents to abide by the Assembly's bylaws, which prohibit parents from engaging their children of school going age in farming activities during school periods.
He noted that the government was doing everything to respond to complaints from cocoa buying countries, which speak against the use of children in cocoa production and said it was up to cocoa farmers to support the government in order to sustain the industry.
Mr Owusu Ansah also warned timber contractors and saw millers against the use of children in their operations and advised parents to provide the basic needs of their children, especially the girls to enable them to attain higher education.
Mr Abdul Mohammed, District Social Welfare Officer, said child labour in cocoa growing areas was of grave concern to the government and was therefore, doing everything possible to eradicate it.
He stressed the need to reactivate district child labour committees, which had been created in about 17 communities in the District to ensure effective monitoring and supervision in cocoa growing communities to clamp down on the menace.
Mr Mohammed said with support from the West African Cocoa Commercial Programme (WACAP), the committees had been able to provide school uniforms, books, shoes and bags for some children newly enrolled in school.