The Dilemma: The case of child labor in mining communities in Bonsaaso, Ghana
Under Ghanaian law, work in mining is forbidden for anyone under the age of 18 years. Ghana has also ratified international standards on child labor, including the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. However, It is estimated that over 1/3rd of Ghana’s children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working.[i] Furthermore, a 2006 ILO study found that approximately 10,000 children were working in the country’s artisanal gold mines.[ii] The dangers are numerous for children working in gold mines, from ill health and injuries due to deep falls in the pits, to increased risks of malaria contraction and exposure to dangerous dusts and toxins.
As part of my research into how “galamsey” or small-scale mining is impacting the MVP Bonsaaso communities and the project’s various interventions, I sat down with 2 groups of school children to talk about galamsey. Both of the communities I visited were amongst the most heavily impacted by artisanal mining and this was visible as we drove past patches of bare land, mounds of dirt and the sheer number of heavily soiled men, women and children walking along the road.
The children I spoke with ranged from as young as 12 years old to 16. I conducted focus group interviews at their schools during break. What struck me most, I think, was how knowledgeable these children are about the hazards and perceptions of galamsey. A number of them admitted to working in the mines on weekends or during their breaks from class. When I asked what they thought of galamsey, they repeatedly told me about the land destruction and degradation, the loss of lives to uncovered pits, the contamination of their water bodies and subsequent lack of drinking water; the risks of losing future farmland, the illegal nature of it and the fact that they knew they could be arrested if they were to be caught mining. Knowing all of this, they still choose to mine. When I asked why, the responses were also consistent. They needed the money to pay for school fees. Their parents could not provide for their needs or they had no parents—or they accompany their parents at the mines to help earn money for the family.
The popular perception in research is that children are forced into labor in the mines by their parents or other ill-intentioned adults in their lives. What I found in talking to these children is that many of them feel compelled into going into this dangerous line of work out of necessity. In communities with such extreme levels of poverty and a serious lack of other livelihood options, the need for survival continues to greatly outweigh the risks of galamsey for both adults and children alike. Laws on child labor can only be enforced when there is a system to protect and provide for these children. This is the disturbing dilemma. If the children of Bonsaaso, Ghana don’t fend for themselves, who will?
[iii]
[iv]
~Winnette
[i] Human Rights Watch. Ghana: Mine Accident Highlights Risk to Children. June 13, 2013. http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/13/ghana-mine-accident-highlights-risk-children
[ii] Id.
[iii] Photocred: Winnette Richards, Keniago, Ghana. 2014
[iv] Photocred: Winnette Richards. Keniago, Ghana. 2014











