A little attention shows them the light

But her parents are still in the hazardous job only to survive.

Morjina is among 14 other girls below 18 enrolled in the training centre at Bandar, run by BRAC, an NGO. They have been taken away from their traditional family profession of bidi manufacturing and admitted to a non-formal school.

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Some local journalists including his correspondent during a visit to the training centre and the school recently were impressed to see their zeal for learning for a better life different from their parents'.

BRAC, SSS (Society for Social Service) and ESDO (Eco-social Development Organisation) are jointly running the school.

There are seven NGOs--BRAC, SSS, ESDO, Light House, SEPOC, EDSC and Cinna Mukul Bangladesh --rendering a laudable service in eliminating child labour at Haragach Banadar and surrounding areas.

Their project was launched in 2001 with 15 crore taka assistance from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Programme on Eleminating Child Labour (IPEC).

Sources in the NGOs said Haragach Bandar a thickly populated area and is known throughout the country as a centre for tobacco business and bidi manufacturing, where at least one on lakh labourers and about 20,000 children are engaged in 39 bidi factories.

Children and their parents work in bidi factories amid health hazards. They become victims of fatal diseases like TB, asthma, jaundice, bronchitis and kin and eye infections.

The sources said most of the families in the Bandar area comprising of parts of Haragach and Sarai unions under Kaunia upazila and Mornia and Gajaghanta unions under Gangachara upazila are victims of erosion and flooding by Teesta river. Having no alternative source of income, most of the families become dependent on bidi manufacturing and tobacco processing work for survival.

According to a survey conducted by the NGO's, a male worker earns Tk 30 a day on an average. If there is no work, they have to starve.

They said the seven NGOs so far have take away around 10,000 children from the hazardous work.

About 9,000 children are being given education in non-formal schools and about 5,000 of them have been selected for admission to in primary schools this year.

Another 3,00 children will be admitted to primary schools next year.

The NGO's are also training about 2,000 boys in various technical courses and income generating activities to make them self reliant so that they do not become engaged in bidi factories or tobacco business.

They are also showing documentary films and VIDEO shows on the bad affects of tobacco to create awareness.

The NGO's under their poverty alleviation programmes covering about 5,000 mothers in the area have so far disbursed Tk 2,44,09,000 loans on easy conditions for agriculture, pisciculture, dairy and poultry farming, goat and cow rearing and other income generating activities.

They said there should be laws in the country to stop child labour.