Child labour is a form of exploitation. It refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives them of their childhood liberty, their potential and their dignity. It is harmful and dangerous for their physical and mental development, and it deprives them of the opportunity to attend schools.
The ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) calls for 'immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency'. The worst forms are defined as: i) all forms of slavery, or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, as well as forced labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, ii) use, procurement or offering of a child for prostitution, for production of pornography or for pornographic performances, iii) use, procurement or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for production and trafficking of drugs as defined in relevant international treaties, and iv) work by its nature or circumstances, in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children. Such harmful works will be determined by national authorities.
The global scenario: Hazardous child labour is the largest category in the worst forms of child labour with an estimated 115 million children, aged 5-17, working in dangerous conditions in sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels, bars, restaurants, fast food establishments, and domestic service. It is found in both industrialised and developing countries. Girls and boys often are involved in hazardous work at very early ages. Worldwide, the ILO estimates that some 22,000 children are killed at work every year. The number of those injured or made ill because of their work is not known. More than half (53 per cent) of all child labourers worldwide do hazardous work. Hazardous work is increasing among the older children, aged 15-17. Within four years (2004 to 2008), it jumped to 20 per cent - from 52 million to 62 million. Boys (15-17) who are doing hazardous work outnumber girls by two to one, and the rate remains high. For girls, the number fell (24 per cent between 2004 and 2008). In the 5-14 age group, 53 million children (about one-third) are in hazardous child labour. Fifteen per cent of all Sub-Saharan African children are involved in hazardous child labour. (ILO, 2013)
The Bangladesh scenario: Child labour is common in Bangladesh in rural and urban areas. About 10 per cent of children aged between 5 and 14 are engaged in the workforce and about 7.0 per cent of the children between age 7 and 14 attend school and still work; about 81 per cent of the children between the age of 5 and 15 attend school without working. Bangladesh made a moderate advancement in its efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour (Office of Child Labour, Forced Labour, and Human Trafficking (OCFT), United States Department of Labour, 2011).
Bangladesh passed the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act 2012 making human trafficking (including labour trafficking) a capital offence, developed and fully funded a Child Labour Monitoring Information System to procure child labour-related data and began implementation of a $9-million child labour project.
However, legal protection regarding child labour is limited and the capacity to enforce related labour laws remains weak. Bangladesh maintains a 'low' compulsory education age. Children in Bangladesh are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, primarily in dangerous activities in agriculture and domestic service. The minimum age for most child labour is 14, and 18 for hazardous work. Child labour is a restraint to schooling. Child labour in Bangladesh includes van pulling and other arduous jobs. Many working children earn less than 10 US$ per month. Most child labourers in Bangladesh work in agriculture. Domestic servants at child-age in many cases have to bear the load of a massive physical stress.
Crucial factors of child labour: About 55 million people live below the poverty line in Bangladesh. Poor households badly need the money that their children earn. They generally contribute around 20-25 per cent of the family income. Since poor households spend the most of their income on food, the earnings of working children are critical to their survival. Poverty is the single-most important factor responsible for the prevalence of child labour in the country. Parents' perceptions greatly influence their children's participation in the labour force. The education system of the country in general does not provide the poor, disadvantaged children with any immediate prospects for 'better' jobs or higher levels of income.
Even though the government has launched the Compulsory Primary Education Programme all over the country since January 1993 in Bangladesh, education remains very expensive for a poor family, which is expected to bear the costs of uniform and transportation.
Emergencies often contribute to an increase in the supply of child labour. Bangladesh happens to be a land of chronic natural calamities. Floods, cyclones and riverbank erosion render many people homeless and helpless every year. Low-income families have little margin to survive in any such disasters.
Bangladeshi children are smuggled across the border by the traffickers and then sold to buyers in the neighbouring countries of the sub-continent or a few spots in the Middle East. Bangladeshi boys are allegedly sent to Dubai and other destinations in the Gulf states to be used as jockeys in the camel race. Though there are restrictions now on using children less than 10 years of age in the camel race, children as young as 4 or 5 years old are exploited. Sometimes poor families do not hesitate to give away their children on an advance payment of only US$ 500 and an assurance of future employment for their children in some Middle East countries.
Where child labour prevails most: Of the child labourers around the globe, approximately 114 million (53 per cent) are in Asia and the Pacific; 14 million (7.0 per cent) live in Latin America; and 65 million (30 per cent) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many children, especially girls, work in domestic service, sometimes starting as young as 5 or 6. This type of child labour is linked to child trafficking. Domestic child labourers can be victims of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.
An estimated 60 per cent of child labour prevails in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels, transport, storage, and communications, finance, insurance, real-estate, and business services and community as well as social personal services. The industry sector includes mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and public utilities (electricity, gas and water). About 14 million children are estimated to be directly involved in manufacturing, construction, and public utilities.
Until recently, the garment industry was the biggest source of employment for child workers in the formal sector the lowest-paid jobs. Most of the child workers were, in fact, school dropouts.
Some of the work of young people in the sectors mentioned is considered legitimate, but there are indications of considerable abuse. Low pay is the norm, and in some tourist areas, children's work in hotels and restaurants is linked to prostitution. In at least one example, child hotel workers receive such low pay that they have to take loans from their employers; the terms of the interest and repayment often lead to debt bondage.
Why are children working under abusive and hazardous circumstances? It is for survival that children are working under abusive, violent and hazardous circumstances. These include rapid population growth, adult unemployment, lack of minimum wages, exploitation of workers, low standard of living, low quality of education, lack of legal provisions, low awareness of the importance of education, dearth of effective vocational skills training, etc. All these add to increase in child labour.
In Bangladesh and other parts of the world, not all works done by children are classified as child labour. Children's or adolescents' participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling is generally regarded as being something positive. These include activities such as helping their parents in homes, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays.
These kinds of activities contribute to children's development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help prepare them to be productive members of the society during their adult life.
Reduction of child labour is expected to help both the children's educational achievements including the efficiency and capacity of the education system, and help reduce poverty. Tackling child labour will leave positive effects beyond the individual children.
Impact: Early involvement of children in work leads to serious health and growth-related adverse effects. Working children suffer from significant growth deficiencies compared with school-going children. They grow up shorter and lighter, and their body size continues to be smaller even in adulthood. Many of them work under conditions that leave them alarmingly vulnerable to chemical and biological hazards. Child workers tend to develop muscular, chest and abdominal pains, headaches, dizziness, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and worm infections. Poor working conditions make them more susceptible than their adult colleagues to infectious diseases, injuries and other workplace-related ailments. Many even experience amputations or loss of body parts.
Moreover, children in certain occupations experience particular types of abuse. Child domestic workers are often found to be victims of verbal and sexual abuse, beating or punishment through starvation. Children, engaged in scavenging, rag-picking or marginal economic activities in the streets, are exposed to drugs, violence, criminal acts, and different kinds of abuse in many parts of the country.
What can we do to prevent child labour? In 2010, the international community adopted a 'roadmap' for achieving the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016. It stressed that child labour is an impediment to children's rights and a barrier to development. The theme for this year's World Day Against Child Labour, which was observed on June 12, was 'Ending child labour in domestic work - Protecting young workers from abuse and exploitation'. Our social responsibilities concerning child labour may provide an opportunity to gain support of individual governments and that of the ILO, the civil society and others, including schools, youth and women's groups as well as the media, in the campaign against child labour.
Child labour is a stark reality in Bangladesh. Children are engaged in hazardous jobs, working under the worst unhygienic conditions. Yet the existing socio-economic conditions do not permit outright elimination of child labour in the near future. Experiences point out that the elimination of child labour from one particular industry may lead to an increase in child labour in another. Moreover, it is not possible to force the child workers to attend full-time schools since the lost income is critical to the survival of their families.
Under these circumstances, the government should formulate a comprehensive National Plan of Action, aimed at gradual elimination of child labour from the country. We need to stop the ongoing cycle of child labour. The widespread practice of child labour is one of the single greatest threats to any poverty eradication programme. The child labourers of today will form the next generation on which sustainable development of the country depends, but they are at the risk of becoming a wasted and barren generation. Given this fact, we all have to emphasise the elimination of child labour from all parts of society.
