CHILD LABOUR

The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on fisheries and livestock has taken exception to fishermen using children for deep-sea fishing which is a highly hazardous job. Apparently, most of this activity is concentrated in Dublar Char, in the south-west of the country.

This is not the first time nor will it be the last that the issue of child labour has come up in Bangladesh, as the practice is widespread and social awareness about it is low. The issue was hotly debated a couple of decades earlier when garments’ importing countries threatened with a ban on products made by children. The issue was settled amicably after apparel owners agreed to do without them and partially fund projects aimed at educating working children. But children working in other sectors remain in the same abyss, year after year.

Most of the working children operate in the informal sector and therefore it is difficult to enforce the law. Even those who work in the formal sector, barring apparel, and they are quite a huge number – almost seven million – remain uncared for. Some of the children work in extremely hazardous sectors like welding, vulcanising and other engineering industries but nothing has been done about them so far. The global wisdom is that a nation is better off, if it invests in children’s education rather than using them for work, prematurely. But somehow social leaders in this country are not convinced entirely of it and therefore the practice continues unabated except for the occasional external constraint.  

There are other reasons, too, for child labour’s continuing prevalence. Poverty is the driving force that compels children to join the work force early. Also the high drop-out rate in primary schools – about 50 per cent – is believed to be one of the main reasons behind the huge under-aged work force. Hopefully, with the introduction of compulsory education up to Class 8 by the government recently, things may look up.   But in the ultimate analysis, society must be convinced that investing in children’s education is more profitable than sending them to work before they come of age.