Will Child Workers Have a Better Fortune in 2024?

 

Today's child is the future of tomorrow. Children are the artisans of building the country and nation of future. Children constitute 45 percent of the total population of Bangladesh. But due to getting involved in labour force, many children's childhood and bright future are lost in the abyss of darkness. Child labour is a serious problem in South Asian countries. At the age when a child is supposed to spend his childhood in school with a book in his hand, he has to do inhuman labor in a brick kiln or factory.

Although child labour is prohibited in all forms, the tragic picture of child labor can be seen in hotels, motels, launches, buses, brick kilns, stone quarries, garages, aluminum factories, mills, homes, sweet and biscuit factories, tobacco industry, leather industry, tea industry and heavy industry etc. Cruel images of child labour are seen in all the big cities.

The children of the families afflicted by the cruelty of poverty are helpless and forced to engage in child labour. In the context of Bangladesh, the first and foremost cause of child labour is 'economic hardship'. There have been various studies on child age and child labour.

In 1974, the Children's Act made the age of a child up to 16 years. In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child stated that 18 years would be the maximum period for a child. The National Child Policy formulated in 1994 made the age of children 14 years. On June 1, 2003, the child's age was set at 16 years. In 2006, under Section 2 (63) of the Bangladesh Labor Act, 'child' means a person who has not reached the age of 14 years. Section 2-1 of the National Children's Policy in 2011 refers to a person under the age of 18.

The International Labour Organization and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child say in the context of child labor: "When a labour or work environment becomes dangerous and detrimental to the physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of a child, it shall be deemed to be child labour." UNICEF defines child labour as "the kind of work that interferes with a child's health and education." The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been observing 'World Day Against Child Labour' since June 12, 2002, to protect the rights of children and eliminate risky child labour. This day is celebrated in 80 countries of the world including Bangladesh every year.

According to the ILO survey, the number of child laborers in the world is about 36 crore 60 lakh. One out of every six children is engaged in child labour. About 22,000 children die every year due to trafficking, terrorism and torture. According to the Department of Labour, there are 69 lakh child laborers in the country. According to a report released by UNICEF, there are currently more than 6 crore children in the country. Although 90 percent go to primary school, more than half drop out before completing school. According to a World Food Organisation (WHO) survey, 57 percent of children work for food. Although 23.7 percent of children are paid wages, the amount is negligible compared to the child law.

Article 17 of the Constitution of Bangladesh provides clear guidelines on compulsory unpaid education for children, Article 18 on nutrition and health protection, Article 28 on enactment of special welfare and development laws, and Article 34 on forcible prohibition of child labor. There are numerous policies at the national and international levels to stop child labor.

According to the National Child Policy, formulated in 2011, risky work cannot be done by any child of 5-18 years. The Children's Act 2013 states that any person who injures, abuses or neglects a child shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years. A survey conducted by the International Labor Organization and UNICEF found that child labour is currently employed in about 310 types of economic activities in urban Bangladesh.

Inhumane torture of child laborers is constantly happening around us. Child domestic worker are brutally tortured by the staffers. We often see in the media how children, engaged in such risky occupations, are constantly subjected to brutal abuse.

The horrors of child labour are increasing day by day. According to a report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics-2020, 6,070 babies are born in Bangladesh every 24 hours. But there is no state or social budget for this new baby. According to a recent study, every child is born in Bangladesh with a deficit budget of 60,000 tk.

According to the statistics of Local Education and Economic Development, there are about 20-25 lakh children in Bangladesh who are called street children. These children are on the way out of the broken family due to lack of money. These children spend the night at bus stations, railway stations, pavements, parks, roads or in open spaces. These are street children. They stay on the road, make a living on the road. All of them are between 5-18 years of age. Many of them are involved in various crimes and misdeeds, some of them are addicted to drugs. Some fall into the trap of trafficking and are trafficked abroad. Someone's limbs were cut off. A vicious syndicate uses these street children in various criminal activities. Girls are abused and sexually assaulted in various ways. According to the Social and Economic Enhancement report, 45 percent of street children are addicted to drugs, 41 percent have no place to sleep, 40 percent have no bathing facilities, 45 percent have no toilet facilities. About 55 percent of children fall ill, but no one sees them. And 75 percent of children are not able to communicate with the doctor when they are sick. 51 percent of children are victims of obscene language. 46 percent of girls are sexually abused. 19 percent of children are addicted to heroin. 40 percent of smokers. 28 percent of children are addicted to tablets and 8 percent of children are addicted to injections.

1) Child labour is called the harvest of poverty. Poverty is at the root of child labor, in order to stop child labour, poverty must first be eradicated.

2) To stop inhuman child labor, we have to change our mental attitude, we have to think of other people's children as our own children.

3) The problems of children below 14 years of age should be identified and solved at each district level.

4) Village and town based rehabilitation projects should be taken to stop child labour. Make a list of children who are being employed due to scarcity and pay child allowance.

5) The government has to implement the existing laws to eliminate child labour and adopt short, medium and long term plans. It is possible to eliminate child labor with the joint initiative of all.

6) In order to eliminate child labor, it is necessary to find out where child labour is taking place and to spread more and more information about it in the media.

7) It is seen that there are many owners who have to pay more, so they do not employ adults. Because of working with children, these owners need to be punished.

8) Child labor should be given priority in the national social security strategy.

9) Every working child must ensure education.

10) Public awareness about child labor and children's rights should be created. Social and political commitments must be implemented to eradicate child labour.

Children are the future leaders of the country and the nation. Today's children will take the noble responsibility of running the country. Therefore, it is essential to develop children as worthy citizens. In the developed countries, various types of care systems have been developed for the physical, mental and intellectual development of children. But in our country children are being deprived of their basic rights in many ways due to illiteracy and poverty. Due to scarcity, they have to engage in various occupations from the very beginning of their lives.

The number of child labourers in the labor market of Bangladesh is increasing day by day. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF said in a report that, Covid-19 crisis has put millions more at risk of being pushed into child labor, which could increase child labor for the first time in 20 years. According to the latest UNICEF report, 16 crore and 80 lakh children are engaged in child labour. And 47 lakh children in Bangladesh are engaged in child labour. According to a report titled "Covid-19 and Child Labour: Crisis, Time to Take Action", child labour has declined by 9 crore 40 lakh since 2000, but this achievement is now at risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Child labour is an obstacle to attaining the government's SDG targets. But there is hope, recently a press release of the Ministry of Labour and Employment has informed that children engaged in risky work will be given 6 months of non-formal education and 4 months of training to withdraw from child labor in the fourth phase of the hazardous child labour eradication project. These children will get a stipend of TK 1,000 per month. This amount of stipend will be given through mobile banking by Bkash. One lakh children will be withdrawn from hazardous child labour. Not only these one lakh children will be removed from hazardous child labour, but according to the SDG target, children will be removed from all forms of child labor by 2030. This step has been taken towards our goal of child labour free, developed and prosperous Bangladesh by 2041.

If the number of child laborers continues to increase in this way, the whole country and nation will be plunged into darkness. Today's children are the future leaders of the country, the lifeblood of the country. If we cannot convert this huge amount of manpower into human resources, our overall development will not possible. Because the future of the country and the nation depends on today's children and young people. Children must be freed from labour and given back to a rough childhood, enlightened by the light of education. Effective social and political commitments must be needed to stop child labour. Above all, we must all be vocal in stopping child labour and protecting the rights of children.

 

Emran Emon is a researcher,
journalist and columnist.