A consortium of female adults called the Young Urban Women has revealed that sexual harassment is increasing in the Northern Region.
This worrying development, according to the group is gaining notoriety at work places and in some schools in the region.
This was brought this to the fore in Tamale on the occasion of the 2015 International Youth Day celebration celebrated on the theme, “Youth civic engagement: the missing voice of the female youth.”
The group in a petition submitted to the Northern Regional Coordinating Council chronicled nine developmental issues affecting the lives of young women in the region.
The petition demanded that the Ghana Education Service should stop shielding and submit the names of teachers caught for sexual harassment to the law enforcement agencies.
“Ghana Education Service in the region should present to the Regional Coordinating Council names of teachers caught for sexual harassment of young women for severe punishment instead of just transferring them.”
The group also requested that the Regional Coordinating Council should lead a process to have traditional leaders and other stakeholders in the region stop interfering in defilement, sexual harassment and child marriage cases.
The group further admonished the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to allocate their common fund for youth development especially young women.
As a consortium championing women empowerment, the Young Urban Women group is an embodiment of about one thousand ladies drawn from nine peri-urban communities in the Tamale Metropolitan Area.
Northern Regional Coordinator of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Shaibu Ziblim said the weeklong celebration aimed at training and nurturing the participants to be responsible citizens.
He condemned the active participation of some youth in the region during chieftaincy, religious and political conflicts recorded in the area.
He advised the youth to desist from moral decadence and called for concerted efforts to make the youth productive.
Shaibu Ziblim commended the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), NORSAAC, Action-Aid and other development partners for supporting the National Youth Authority to implement its projects.
The occasion brought together students, youth groups, civil society organizations, the clergy, traditional leaders and other duty bearers.
Resource persons including the Northern Regional Population Officer, Chief Alhassan Amadu, Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, ASP Holortu Emmanuel and Regional Director of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Alhaji Abdul-Razak Saani made presentations on youth sexuality and Sexual Reproductive Health in the era of HIV/AIDS, the youth, crime and law enforcement and youth morality and development in the era of ICT.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana