Wednesday | 14 May 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Bangla | Wednesday | 14 May 2025 | Epaper
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Child labour and how to win over it 

Published : Friday, 18 April, 2025 at 12:00 AM  Count : 368
Asif Al Mahmood
The child of today will be the future of tomorrow. Children are the craftsmen in the building of the nation. In Bangladesh, children make up 45 percent of the total population. Yet they are pulverized on the labouring threshing floor; children's playful childhoods and promising futures vanish into the void of darkness. In South Asian countries, child labour poses a significant issue.

Even though child labour is banned in every instance, a tragic scene of it can be witnessed upon leaving the house. The real extent of child labour can be seen in hotels, motels, lounges, buses, brick kilns, stone quarries, garages, aluminium factories, mills, homes, sweets and biscuit factories, the tobacco industry, the leather industry, the tea industry, and other heavy industries. The children from families suffering under the harsh burden of poverty have no choice but to participate in child labour in order to provide them with a few grains of rice.

In Bangladesh, the primary driver of child labour is economic hardship. Numerous investigations have focused on the relationship between a child's age and child labour.

The age limit for a child was established at 16 years by the Children's Act in 1974. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, established in 1989, declared that a maximum age for a child would be 18 years. Children were defined as those aged 14 years and below in the National Child Policy developed in 1994. As of June 1, 2003, the upper age limit for children was established at 16 years. According to the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, under Section 2 (63), the term 'child' refers to an individual who is below 14 years of age. According to the National Children's Policy from 2011, a person is defined as being under the age of 18 in Section 2-1.

The International Labour Organization and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child state regarding child labour, "When a labourer's work environment poses dangers and harms a child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development, it is classified as child labour." According to UNICEF, child labour is defined as "the kind of work that interferes with a child's health and education."

Since June 12, 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has marked World Child Labour Day to safeguard children's rights and eradicate hazardous child labour. This day is celebrated annually in 80 countries worldwide, including Bangladesh.

Article 17 of the Constitution of Bangladesh outlines mandatory unpaid education for children, Article 18 addresses nutrition and health protection, Article 28 concerns the creation of special welfare and development laws, and Article 34 mandates the forcible prohibition of child labour. A multitude of policies exists at both national and international levels aimed at halting child labour.

The National Child Policy established in 2011 states that no child aged 5 to 18 years can engage in hazardous work. According to the Children's Act 2013, any individual who harms, mistreats, or neglects a child under their care can face imprisonment for up to five years.

The International Labour Organization and UNICEF carried out a survey that revealed that child labour is currently utilized in around 310 different types of economic activities in urban Bangladesh.

Inhumane torture of child labourers occurs constantly around us-child domestic workers are brutally tortured by their employers for breaking plates while working, hotel child waiters are tortured for breaking glass, and child labourers face torture for any mistake on the job. It is frequently reported in the media that children involved in such hazardous jobs face ongoing severe mistreatment.

Child labour is rooted in poverty. Poverty eradication is a prerequisite for stopping child labour. Moreover, to put an end to inhuman child labour, we must regard other people's children as if they were our own. To eradicate child labour, the government must enforce the current legislation and develop plans with short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. There should be campaigns to raise public awareness regarding children's rights.

Kids are the future leaders of the nation and country. The children of today will bear the honourable responsibility of managing the country and guiding the nation of tomorrow. It is thus crucial to raise children to be deserving citizens. In the world's developed nations, a variety of care systems have been established to support children's physical, mental, and intellectual development. However, in our country, due to poverty and illiteracy, children are deprived of their fundamental rights in numerous ways. Poverty forces them to take on different jobs right from the start of their lives.

It is essential to liberate children from the affliction of labour and to illuminate their paths with education, as they will assume leadership of the country and guide the nation in the future. Most importantly, it is essential that we all take action to put an end to child labour and safeguard children's rights.

The writer is a columnist


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