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WIRED JA – A two-day International labour Organization (ILO) workshop on child labour has been told of a break down in law and order in St. Lucia with young people turning to gang leaders to find a “positive” role model.Labour Minister Stephenson King called for urgent action to address the social problems as he addressed the workshop which focuses on apprenticeships, including school-to-work transition, as a response to child labour issues.
He told the conference that an October 2016 ILO rapid assessment report on child labour in St. Lucia “found that children and youth turn to local gang leaders as role models, after struggling to find positive role models in school and the community.”
King, a former prime minister, who read excerpts of the ILO document, said for years he has personally analysed and assessed the deterioration in this country’s social fabric in which families are disintegrating, while others are simply dysfunctional.
“Parental guidance is withering away and seems to be a thing of the past while our young men resort to the block, blaming the system for failing them – a reflection of their behaviour and shortcomings,” he said, adding that increasingly, there has been a break down in law and order.
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