Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0143/01431.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 11KB | 195 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01431}
$Pretitle{353}
$Title{Ghana
Chapter 6C.   Welfare}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{welfare
social
training
government
percent
family
ghana
private
society
benefits}
$Date{1970}
$Log{}
Country:     Ghana
Book:        Area Handbook for Ghana
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1970

Chapter 6C.   Welfare

Traditional Welfare Provisions

     In traditional Ghanaian society welfare assistance was a function of the
extended family or lineage. An individual was expected to turn to members of
his family for financial aid and guidance, and the family was expected to
provide for the welfare of every member. In the villages this mutual
assistance still operated in the larger kinship units of lineage and clan, but
in the cities it has become largely inoperative.

     The urban worker has therefore developed a substitute in the form of the
friendly and mutual benefit societies. These societies may be organized along
tribal, lineage, or religious lines or they may be open to anyone. Their aim
is to provide a sense of security and belonging in an impersonal urban
setting. Members receive support from the society when they are out of work or
ill, or they may receive help with the rituals involved with birth and death
and the return of the family to its place of origin. The societies also
provide educational and social functions, such as lectures and discussions,
picnics, and dances. Funds are obtained through the payment of dues and
through special fundraising events.

     Throughout the 1960s legal sanction to the traditional welfare system was
given by the government through its Control of Beggars and Destitutes
Ordinance, which makes it mandatory for relatives to support any member of
their family begging or destitute. The government also operated the Central
Destitutes Infirmary at Bekwai, which provided care for persons without a
family or whose family was too far away to provide effective care.

Government Welfare Activities and Provisions

     Before 1965 an ordinance provided for workmen's compensation, and both
civil servants and those employed in certain commercial enterprises were
enrolled in pension plans; a nationwide social security system came into force
in 1965. The act promulgated in 1965 provided for a provident fund scheme with
lump-sum cash benefits until 1970, when conversion to a pension scheme was to
take place. The scheme applied to all employees in firms with five or more
workers. Casual workers were excluded, but alien workers could be covered by
reciprocal agreements in effect with their home government. A special pension
system was still in effect for government employees. The program was to be
administered by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in conjunction with
the State Insurance Corporation.

     The insured pays 5 percent of earnings; and the employer, 12.5 percent.
Retirement was at age sixty for men and fifty-five for women or was payable at
any age upon emigration. In case of earlier retirement or death or if the
worker becomes an invalid, payment was a lump sum equal to the total employee
and employer contribution since 1965, plus at least 30 percent compound
interest.

     Sickness and maternity compensation was also first provided in 1965 under
the act and was available to all those eligible for social security coverage.
Benefits were available after two years of contribution. Payments were payable
only after a three-month waiting period and were deducted from the amount of
the worker's credit in the provident fund. No medical benefits were provided,
although some free medical care could be obtained at government health centers
and hospitals.

     Some work-injury compensation was first provided in 1940, and a 1963 act
was in force in 1970. All employees in industrial, commercial, or agricultural
production with ten or more workers were eligible. Employees whose earnings
exceeded 1,500 cedis a year (equivalent of about NC1,776), casual workers, and
family laborers were excluded. The employer paid the total cost through direct
provision of benefits or insurance premiums. There was no minimum qualifying
period. Temporary disability brought two-thirds of earnings, with a maximum of
roughtly NC100 a month. In cases of total disability, benefits were a lump-sum
payment equal to fifty-four months' earnings, with minimum benefits of more
than NC1,100 monthly. Scheduled payments for partial disability and for
constant attendance supplements were listed, as were limited medical payment
benefits and survivor grants.

     Pensions were payable to civil servants in pensionable posts, to the
military, and to teachers in the public school system upon reaching the age of
forty-five or upon completing ten years of service. Pensions were also granted
on medical grounds at an earlier stage. The compulsory retirement age was
fifty-five for civil servants and sixty for teachers. Pension scales were set
from time to time by parliament and could not exceed two-thirds of the highest
salary attained. Widows and orphans of pensionable civil servants, and
teachers were entitled to their pension as well as to a lump-sum gratuity if
death occurred while the pensioner was still in service.

     A number of contributory retirement or insurance schemes were offered on
a voluntary basis both by government agencies and by several larger industrial
and commercial enterprises. The employee's contributions were usually either
matched or nearly matched by the employer and were made through payroll
deductions. The voluntary schemes had not met with much success, and a number
of enterprises had discontinued them after a trial period because the number
of employees taking advantage of the plans was too small to warrant the time
and expense needed to administer them.

     The Department of Social Welfare, in operation since 1946, has been at
various times a part of the Ministry of Education, a ministry in its own right
or, as it was in 1970, part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. Its
staff of caseworkers has been trained mainly at the School of Social Welfare
or at the University of Ghana. They must have either a school certificate or
a class A teaching certificate to qualify.

     The concern of this agency covers a wide range of social services. Its
concern for child and school welfare covers day nurseries, orphanages, youth
work, parent-teacher associations, vocational training, family casework, and
probation and juvenile delinquency services. Its concern with community
development includes adult literacy neighborhood centers and self-help
programs. It also has overseas registration, rehabilitation, and placement
of disabled and handicapped persons.

     In the late 1960s there were several programs in the country offering
training in social service. A two-year program in social administration was
offered at the University of Ghana. A diploma in physical planning was
available under a three-year program at the University of Science and
Technology. A nine-month program at the School of Social Welfare and Community
Development in Accra offered a certificate in social welfare. Various short
courses incorporating inservice training were available at the sixteen rural
training centers in the country.

     Initial concern with the handicapped and disabled fell to private
organizations. Urbanization and the resulting concentration of people cut off
from the help of their kin groups left a task too great for private groups
alone. In 1960 the Rehabilitation Section was created under the then
Department of Social Welfare and Community Development to attempt to register
all those handicapped in the country. In 1961 the government additionally
committed itself by allocating the equivalent of US$70,000 for rehabilitation
of the estimated 100,000 disabled persons in the country.

     In 1963 official efforts at registration had listed only 13,325
handicapped persons. Of these, 42 percent were blind, 40 percent