Child labour
Photo: Adnan & Azizur Rahim Peu / Driknews
Child labour nowadays is not accepted in any civilised society. But child domestic service is a widespread practice in Bangladesh. The majority of child domestics tend to be 12 to 17 years old. But children as young as 5 or 6 years old can also be found working. A survey of child domestic workers found that 38 percent were 11 to 13 years old and nearly 24 percent were 5 to 10 years old. Child domestics work long hours, getting up well before their employers and going to bed long after them. On an average 50 percent domestic workers work 12- 14 hours a day. The proportion of boy and girl child workers, in the age group of 5-17 years, is 73.5 per cent and 26.5 per cent, respectively. The total number of working children aged 5-17 years in rural areas is estimated at 6.4 million as against 1.5 million in urban areas. As many as 93.3 per cent of all working children in the age group of 5-17 years operate in the informal sector. Among factors contributing to child labour are rapid population growth, adult unemployment, bad working conditions, lack of minimum wages, exploitation of workers, low standard of living, low quality of education, lack of legal provisions and enforcement, low capacity of institutions, gender discrimination, etc. One or more of the above contribute to the large numbers of children working under exploitative or hazardous conditions. More boys than girls are engaged in this form of child labour across all age groups. A boy of seven or eight has to work as a servant. Sometimes the boy works in ships and hotels. They have to grind bricks and stones. They work as street hawkers. Sometimes they become pick-pockets. A boy whose feet hardly reach the pedal has to work as a rickshaw-puller. They work as bus conductor. They work in small factories. They polish boots. They sell nuts and chinches. They sell vegetables. They work as porters. The servants and maidservants have to work fourteen hours a day without any recess. They are always dealt with rebuke and reproof. Very often they are punished for trifling offences. The masters and housewives are very harsh to them. They are generally given poor food. In the shops, hotel and factories they get similar treatment. The children who work from an early age cannot have proper growth. They sometimes suffer from various diseases of the stomach. They have a short life. Mass education programmes protect children from work at an early stage. The educated people of society, the young educated graduates, should come forward to help this programme. If our government, NGOs, students as well as all conscious people come forward, the country can easily get rid of child labour to a great extent.
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