Three more Kushtia bidi factories sign accord

The factories are Monmohon Bidi Factory, Kalam Bidi Factory and Sonali Bidi Factory.

Their owners signed agreements with officials of ILO and three NGOs-SETU, BTUK and PIPASA--that they would no more employ child labour in their factories. The agreements were signed recently in Kushtia town in presence of district administration officials, university teachers and the local elite.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The signing ceremony was followed by a seminar on Elimination of Worst Form of Child Labour: our Role".

Kushtia Additional Deputy Commissioner Mahatb Uddin Jamadar, ILO's Chief Technical Advisor Suwjeeba Fonseka, Consultant Keth Fisher, Sector Coordinator AT Siddique, SETU Executive Director MA Kader, BTUK Assistant Programme Coordinator Ahsanul Haq, PIPASA Executive Director Samayal Choudhury, Dr. AHM Zehadul Karim of Rajshahi University, Prof Dr. Julfikar Ali and Dr. Rezaul Karim of Islamic University, Dr. Amredranath Biswas and Abdul Gafur attended the programmes.

Earlier, 881 children were taken out of the hazardous jobs in these three factories.

With this, eight Bidi factories have so far signed agreements not to employ child labour.

The five factories which signed agreements earlier are Akiz, Naisr, N Jaman, Banani and Monsur Bidi factories.

A total of 1733 children were taken out of the five factories--354 from Akiz Didi Factory, 426 from, Naisr, 254 from N Zaman, 328 from Banani and 53 from Monsur Bidi factory.

ILO sponsored the programme styled PEWFCL (Preventing and Eliminating Worst Forms of Child Labour) in Bangladesh in 2001 to take out child labour from Bidi factories and to arrange their education and vocational training.

The three NGOs are implementing the programme, funded by the US Department of Labour (USDOL).

According to a survey by SETU and BTUK, at least 5000 children were working in the eight Bidi factories.

SETU has taken 1459 children out of the factories and 896 of them have been enrolled at schools after orientation at 28 pre-school centers run by ILO in the district.

The rest aged between 13-17 were provided with income generating activities including tailoring, paper bag making, nursery raising, electrical work and other technical jobs after short training.

The first agreement between SETU Monsur Bidi Factory, a big tobacco factory in the district, was signed on May 9 last year. Owners of Akiz, Naisr, N Jaman and Banani factories signed agreement on February 14 this year.

SETU also disbursed Tk 29 lakh among 497 poor parents as soft loan so that they are not forced to send their children to tobacco factories again.

The NGO started the programme in 2001 and was joined by the two others in 2003.