Ministry warns parents against exploiting their children or wards
The Edo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, on Monday, restated its commitment to ensuring strict implementation of the Child Rights Law in the state.
Ebomoyi Idundun, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, told journalists that a committee had been set up to monitor and protect children against all forms of abuse, including street hawking.
She said the governor, through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, was currently promoting awareness on the danger of child abuse and its implication on children and the society.
?The government has put in place implementation committees and Child Rights Watch groups in the 18 Local Government areas of the state to make the Child Rights Act effective,? she said.
Idundun stressed the need for concerned members of the public to report cases of abuse of children to the police, rescue centres and other institutions that could provide redress.
She said that the Child Rights Act, which was passed into law in October, 2007, incorporated all the rights and responsibilities of children and provided for the development, survival, protection and participation rights of children in Edo.
She advised parents to take advantage of the schools that had been provided by the government for their children.
She warned against child labour, saying that any child found hawking during school hours would be held, and sanctions would be melted out to the parents of the child.
