Legal experts, labour rights activists, and representatives from various professional sectors have called for immediate amendments to Bangladesh's laws and policies to ensure a fully enforceable ban on child labour.
Speaking at a policy-sharing dialogue in Dhaka on Sunday, they warned that despite multiple reforms, an estimated 3.5 million children across the country remain trapped in child labour, with more than one million working in hazardous conditions. They stressed that 99 per cent of these children are employed in the informal sector, where current labour laws offer almost no protection.
The programme, organised by Educo Bangladesh and the Child Labor Elimination Platform at a city hotel, was chaired by Bangladesh Labor Foundation Executive Director AKM Ashraf Uddin and presided over by Educo Bangladesh Manager Afzal Kabir Khan. Key policymakers and rights advocates-including Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labour Mohammad Mozammel Haque, Co-Chair of the Child Labour Monitoring Council Advocate Salma Ali, BNWLA President Advocate Seema Zahur, Educo Bangladesh Programme Director Abdur Rahim, and representatives from several development organisations-took part in the discussion.
Dhaka University law professor Dr Md Nazmuzzaman Bhuiyan delivered the keynote presentation, outlining structural weaknesses and policy gaps that continue to perpetuate child labour in Bangladesh. He noted that although labour law amendments have been introduced, the law "does not fix any minimum wage in the formal sector" and remains entirely irrelevant to the informal sector, where the vast majority of child workers are employed.
Dr Nazmuzzaman argued that establishing a national minimum wage for children and adolescents-across both formal and informal sectors-is essential to preventing exploitation. He pointed out that the National Plan of Action expired in 2016 without meeting its objectives, while the updated National Education Policy raised compulsory schooling age from 10 to 14 but cannot be implemented fully until relevant legislation is amended. Children aged 11 to 14, he cautioned, remain "at risk of the worst forms of child labour," often performing tasks that threaten their health and development. He also stressed the need for nationwide social awareness campaigns to shift public attitudes regarding child labour.
Mozammel Haque described child labour as "one of the major social problems of the country," largely driven by poverty. Despite government and private initiatives, he said, millions of children continue to work "simply to survive."
