Contents
1. Rights Children Have by Law
2. Causes of Child Labor
3. Forms of Child Labor
4. Effects of Child Labor
5. Previous Attempts to Prevent Child Labor
6. Current Situation
7. Conclusion
8. Works Cited
1. Rights Children Have by Law
Under national law and several international human rights documents which Bangladesh has signed to, the government is obligated to ensure the protection of child’s rights. Some documents include:
- Children Act, 1974
- ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
- Labor Act
According to The Children Act, 1974, a child is defined as “a person under the age of sixteen years” [The Children Act. 1983. Page 2]. According to the ILO Convention 182, child labor is defined as all children between five and fourteen years of age involved in economic activity and all children between fifteen and seventeen involved in hazardous work and the worst forms of child labor [International Labour Organization. 1999.]. Also, the Labor Act states that no child below sixteen years of age is allowed to be engaged in hazardous work.. However, currently 7.9 million children between five and fourteen face the misfortunes of child labor in Bangladesh, where they work an average of forty eight hours a week and earn less than a monthly payment of 500 taka (US $7.26). Even more, over one million of these children are involved in hazardous activity [Hossain, Sara. 2009.]. Thus it is evident that although by law each child should not be engaged in labor, this is not true of the current situation in Bangladesh.
2. Causes of Child Labor
Approximately forty five percent of the population live below the poverty line in Bangladesh [Central Intelligence Agency, 11 November 2009], and poor families are highly dependent on their children’s incomes which contributes to a quarter of the total family income. Much of the money is spent on food; hence it is critical for children to earn as a result of basic survival. Moreover, when families face crisis such as yearly natural disasters (floods, cyclones, etc.), seasonal diseases, family problems (divorce, abandonment, illnesses, etc.), the responsibility of obtaining the family income falls upon children and as such they are made victims.
It is only natural for parents to prefer their children to take part in labor over education. In the short term, education is inefficient because children cannot complete a proper basic education leading to a satisfactory career until they are eighteen years old, which is too long for the family to live without the extra income. In addition attending school causes a shortage of paid work hours, less help at home, and debt due to the cost of tuition, uniforms, supplies, and transportation. In some cases education can cost up to a third of the family’s income. After the Compulsory Primary Education Program was put forth in 1993 [M. Asad, 30 October 2009], children receiving educations were still forcibly made to work by their families in order to pay for the education. Parents also believe that the practical skills achieved from manual labor are useful to learn at a young age and can lead to better careers in the future. Furthermore, it is a common social belief among such parents that having children is a sign of old age. They imply to their children that they must retire it is truly the children’s responsibility to take care of them; this is true of parents who are as young as forty years with children aged only five years old. However, whatever the situation, the victims do not benefit in any way.
3. Forms of Child Labor
Hazardous Careers
Children work in almost every economical sector in Bangladesh, and the occupations in which they are engaged are hazardous and dangerous. Some hazardous careers include:
- Engineering workshops
- Prostitution
- Battery recharging
- Automobile workshops
- Welding
- Stone and brick processing
- Scavenging
- Blacksmiths’ work
- Sweeping
- Saw mill work
- Factory work
In 1995 UNICEF and the Ministry of Labor and Manpower collaborated together in undertaking a study of dangerous workplaces and activities in which children are involved called “Hazardous Child Labor in Bangladesh” [Hossain, Mohammad Zulfiquer. 8 February 2007.]. It was found that children are commonly exposed to:
- Flames
- Harmful toxic and chemical substances
- Electric currents
- Fumes
- Sharp equipment
- Terrible working conditions (including extreme temperatures and little light)
- Heavy weights
- Unsafe machinery
Additionally, employers do not take safety measures into consideration. In result children must work under stressful conditions without protective gloves, masks or shields. When proper equipment is provided, it is usually only sufficient for adults and children must cope and use alternatives such as handkerchiefs for covering their mouth and nose.
Furthermore, there are many cases in which children work for very rough employers. Employers tend to make the most out of children as they provide greater value than adults in that they are more vulnerable, trustworthy, less conscious of their rights, easier to force and give difficult orders to, less likely to form protesting unions, and are usually present at work. Additionally, some children even work in factories without registration or even names. Thus much illegal activity is able to take place with little monitoring, and resultantly, children experience severe abuses causing disabilities and death [Hossain, Emran. 16 July 2009].
Child Trafficking
Children are commonly smuggled to other countries and exploited, whether they are kidnapped or sold off by their parents. Some parents sell their children with ease as they are given a promising advance and a false assurance of a brighter future for their children. Recently, however, parents have become more aware of the issue, and do not trust approaching brokers as easily. When conducting interviews for the research of this project, each child interviewed had previously been approached by a broker trying to take them abroad.
Street Children
Children involved in street activities such as scavenging often face exposure to criminal activities, violence, different forms of abuse and drugs. Officers often beat these children and send them to adult jails as opposed to juvenile jails without asking their ages [Parveen, Rita. 7 November 2009.]. Life can be very difficult and violent in jails, and families of these children, if they have any, cannot afford to bail the children out. Also, it is for this reason many innocent street children are arrested as well by suspecting officers who hardly check to see whether the child is truly involved with illegal street activity, hardly bother contacting the child’s guardians, or bother giving the child a chance to explain his/her situation or be taken to court so that they may receive a proper hearing. According to the Children Act, all of these things should in fact be done by officers and children should be placed in juvenile jails ” [The Children Act. 1983.].
During one such case, an eight year old girl was taken to an adult jail and the officer who has arrested her had violated the Children Act in the ways mentioned above. Eventually she was taken to court and the court criticized the officer’s inefficiency in following the Children Act. The Court also recognized the girl needed to be placed in a safe environment and not that of an adult jail; however because the girl had an abusive home and the Court did not believe it in her best interest to keep her with her parents. On the contrary, instead of coming up with a solution as to the girl’s custody, the Court left the case pending, due to which the girl was left in jail. She was later put on bail and an NGO took responsibility of her safety and custody. Thus, although the Court recognized the violation of laws and put into consideration the child’s best interest, in the long run it did not put in much effort in assisting the child.
Domestic Child Laborers
There are a least 0.4 million child domestics in Dhaka city alone [Parveen, Rita. 7 November 2009.]. The child domestics mainly are those in vulnerable situations; they may only have one parent, be orphaned, or have faced abandonment. The caretakers of such children easily allow these children to work domestically as they consider the situation as an opportunity where children will be provided meals and shelter.
Most child domestics live with their employers and only see or call their families a few times a year. They end up working long hours; they wake up earlier than their employers and go to bed after them. One average, they work a good fifteen to eighteen hours every day. Children can be treated as slaves as they must take upon every order their employers give them; their relationship operates beyond the norms of social conduct and they can be punished at any instance, whether they put too much salt in the cooking or did not iron the shirts properly. Also, despite them receiving three meals a day, child domestics get less food than that of their employers, and often may east left over’s. Furthermore, they are only paid 80-400 (US $1.16-$5.81) taka a month, which is usually sent to their families [Akter, Rasheda. 7 November 2009]. Thus, child domestics must dedicate all their time and effort to their employers’ needs and they do not gain anything from it other than their monthly paycheck, which they themselves do not even have access too.
Rope Factories
Children as young as seven years old have to work for a minimum of twelve hours in rope factories. During the twelve hours, they must constantly run a distance of thirty-three feet while pulling string. The children are not provided with protection gear, thus they constantly inhale jute particles that are resultant of the rope production; studies have shown that these children show symptoms of heart and lung diseases. If the children do not work efficiently (which means constant running for half a day), children are not subject to return to work or receive a full pay. Additionally, this hazardous career only provides children 35-100 taka (US $0.51-$1.45) per day [Hossain, Emran. 13 September 2009.].
4. Effects of Child Labor
Health Effects
The main cause of health related problems is a child’s exposure to biological and chemical hazards and unhygienic situations. Employers do not care to differentiate children from adults, and children are much more vulnerable to work related sicknesses such as infectious diseases, injuries and amputations. Additionally, children begin working from the age of five; this severely consequences in a child’s health and development. In comparison to school children, working children suffer from much greater growth deficiencies; for instance, they are paler and are generally more petit than others throughout their lives [Rosati Furio, Bustreo Flavia, Mangiaterra Viviana, and Roggero Paulo. 12 September 2009.].
Psychological Effects
Children also face physical, verbal and sexual abuse as well as a punishment of starvation; all such abuses are psychologically traumatizing. Children are forced to behave as adults; they are not allowed to enjoy their childhoods or make mistakes, for if they do, abuse is a consequence. Children also do not work in child friendly environments; the entire day they must concentrate on pleasing their employers in order to receive pay and still have a job the next day. They often they do not have the time to make friends or visit their families, thus they must virtually get through their lives alone. Even when children are sick and wish to rest, they are verbally and physically abused and their salaries are cut, and their employers also do not provide them with basic medical care. Children cannot escape abuse and must keep quiet, for if they complain, they are tortured more and are sarcastically asked “Why do you bother working?”[J., Sonia. 14 November 2009.]. All of these factors affect children psychologically. Resultant effects are low self-esteem, low self-confidence, fear, shock, difficulty in speaking, withdrawal from social environments and even suicides. Furthermore, a child’s childhood is an important base for character development. However, character development is greatly affected by the fact children spend most of their childhood sworking where their bosses constantly give them orders and demands telling them what to do and what not to do; one such problem resultant of this can be a child’s inability to make decisions for themselves in the future.
Additionally, ideas imposed upon children by their parents that it is their duty to work affect children’s abilities to think and feel independent. For instance, younger children willingly accept their parents’ views on working; some even believe “working is fun” [A. Mainul, 14 November 2009.] and do not have other perspectives upon the issue. It is difficult for them to imagine a life out of the current context, and thus they automatically know from very young ages that they will be working for the rest of their lives. When asked about what they themselves wish to do in the future they answer saying that they are satisfied with their current careers; they hardly have the capacity to build an imagination or have dreams due to the ideas inflicted upon them. Older children, however, who are more independent in their thoughts and are less vulnerable in absorbing everything that they are told, do have dreams and wants of an alternate lifestyle. However, they are not able to reach their dreams due to the fact they cannot receive proper educations or support from their parents. Mahira R. said “I want to be a doctor when I am older, but my parents think that is a ridiculous idea and a waste of time and money.
Long Term Effects
The child labor socio-economic group is particularly disadvantaged due to the deprivation of children’s childhoods in addition to a bleak and disadvantaged future as a result of incomplete education. Consequently, child laborers will continue to earn low wages as adults. Additionally, their offspring will fall into the same situation in order to supply for a poor family. Thus poverty will not abandon such families and the problem will recur as generations pass.
5. Previous Attempts to Prevent Child Labor
Before US senator Harkin’s bill in 1993, which banned the importing of products into the United States from all Bangladeshi industries involving child labor, the garment industry had the largest number of child laborers. Children would have to work 11-13 hours a day and even more during peak periods. However after the bill passed the garment industries released 75% of their workers [Hossain, Mohammad Zulfiquer. 8 February 2007.]. Instead of making change for the better, as was originally aimed, children began undertaking more hazardous activities such as prostitution and stone crushing in order to obtain new sources of income, as their situation at home was still the same and parents needed their children working.
By 1995 a Memorandum of Understand (MOU) was reached by the ILO, UNICEF and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). This project released children from over 2,000 garment industries and provided a stipend of 300 taka (US $4.36) per month for all terminated workers so that they could receive education without facing losses in their families’ incomes. By 1996, UNICEF, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Gono Shahajya Sangstha (GSS) implemented a special education program for the terminated workers. Resultantly, the outcome of attendance was not efficient as only 2,080 out of 61,000 terminated child workers enrolled themselves. The 300 taka (US $4.36) stipend was not enough for families as children could make 100-200 taka (US $1.45-$2.90) more working (this shows how important each taka is to these families) [Hossain, Mohammad Zulfiquer. 8 February 2007.]. Additionally, compulsory primary education is not effective without compulsory secondary education as children attend school for a few years but drop out later; thus this incomplete education prevents children from spending time in learning important practical labor skills and does not necessarily lead to a bright literate future.
6. Current Situation
Involvement of Organizations
Many private organizations have implemented programs in order to benefit children so that they receive a source of income as well as an education:
Underprivileged Children's Educational Programs (UCEP)
The UCEP is effective in providing a basic education, skill training and future employment placement for children. Also, children only have to attend school for two and a half hours a day so that they can work at the same time.
Aino Salish Kendro (ASK)
ASK is a legal aid and human guide organization. The Child Rights Unit has formed fourteen educational drop in centers for children, which are funded by the organizations Save the Children Sweden and Save the Children Denmark. These drop in centers are for children between six and eighteen years of age. Nine of the centers provide full time schooling hours, while the other five centers run for half school days. Additionally, each center has two school shifts a day. This allows children to come to school whenever they have free time, and the educational courses have been created in such a way that children can adapt to them even with inconsistent attendance.
Although the drop in centers are for all poverty stricken children, ASK mainly focuses on recruiting child domestic laborers to their centers by visiting houses door to door for child workers. Even more, ASK educates parents and employers through workshops and meetings about the rights of the child, and emphasizes on the importance of following such rights. ASK also provides counseling for troubled children, and focuses on character building through its ‘My World Workshop’ which consists of topics such as ‘self empowerment’ and ‘self exploration’. All in all, ASK is successful in raising awareness upon the issue of child rights and creating better work situations for children by educating employers and parents, however, as it has over a thousand students enrolled in its drop in centers, it cannot help all its students in this way.
StreetWise
In addition to receiving donations from external sources, the StreetWise school is extremely effective in making most of its funds from creating products through their students’ artworks (i.e. postcards). The sales of these products which are sold in several popularly visited stores and exhibitions are also useful in raising awareness about the StreetWise project and the issue of child poverty. Additionally, StreetWise has less than 40 students; this is effective in allowing each student to gain an attentive education as well as enough provisions for their family. In another sense StreetWise can also afford to provide children at least one sufficient meal a day, and at times they allow children to stay overnight so that as a result they get three sufficient meals, which is a gift considering that children often skip meals at home due to low income [Muyeed, Aparna.12 July 2009.]. Although StreetWise is not able to largely impact the entire child labor community, their strategy of starting small is beneficial in being thorough and by truly helping the few who do graduate from the school so that they gain a proper education and can enjoy their childhoods without having to worry about working on the side.
Dhaka Project
The Dhaka Project School is advertised internationally as well as locally, and obtains most of its funds from donations. In addition to educating slum kids, the school also provides courses teaching life skills to parents of children, who are then provided with careers after passing their courses. Also, the school’s special family package deals for siblings are useful in convincing parents to allow all children in the family to take part.
It is evident that in the short term it is difficult for schools to continue expanding for the entire child labor community; for instance, the Dhaka Project School currently cannot provide enough for all their several hundred students; meanwhile, StreetWise is being able to provide sufficiently for each student with a much smaller number. Therefore, preventing child labor as a whole is definitely a long term goal and small steps must be taken.
Government Involvement
“Despite regularly reiterating its commitment to the promotion and protection of child rights, the state frequently fails to reflect this in its policy and practices.” [Hossain, Sara. 2009.]. Although the government has an appropriate justice system that can be significantly effective in reducing and preventing child labor, the government “does not know how to use this system appropriately” [Parveen, Rita. November 7 2009.]. For instance, the recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) includes a Policy Matrix containing annual targets in addition to indicators based on children’s rights, yet, there is no current report containing information regarding progress made to achieve such goals. Additionally, employers, parents, citizens, policemen, and even lawyers are not aware of important policies and laws regarding child rights, which is why these rights are regularly and illegally violated. All in all, there is a “lack of responsibility, lack of awareness and lack of accountability” [Akter, Rasheda. November 7 2009.]. within the government, and little effort is applied towards the prevention of child labor.
Recently, however, the government has shown more commitment towards its policies, such as with its formulation of three National Plans of Actions for Children (NPA) covering the period of 2005-2010 [Hossain, Sara. 2009.]. The National Child Labor Elimination Policy, finalized in 2008, contains a long term plan regarding the elimination and prevention of child labor, in addition to a short term plan which will help rehabilitate those children involved in hazardous work and worst forms of child labor. The policy also sets certain conditions for employers. On the other hand, the policy is ineffective in that it lacks a monitoring mechanism to ensure the policy is implemented; it also lacks in providing obligations for people to follow the policy. Additionally, much of the policy is similar to other policies already adopted by the state. The policy is currently waiting for approval from the Cabinet Division.
Furthermore, the state ratified the UNCRC nineteen years ago. However, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) has not yet been set up, which is mandatory under the UNCRC. A draft law was created for the ombudsman in 2006, and meeting was recently held by the Daily Star newspaper and UNICEF regarding this matter. Speakers in this conference stated the importance of an ombudsman in order to make NGOs as well as government organizations “accountable and transparent in protecting the child rights” [The Daily Star. 10 October 2009.]. The ombudsman would also provide a platform to which the children could raise their thoughts and complaints. Additionally, the importance of having several ombudsmen spread throughout the country for better efficiency was discussed. Advocate Salma Ali stated “Child abuse would reduce considerably if an independent children ombudsman could be established”. The OCO does not require huge funds and can be easily set up if the government chooses to take action.
7. Conclusion
Children as young as five are forced to behave as adults everyday and work in unfriendly environments. These children are slaves of cruel employers who leave them with amputations and psychologically traumatized. Even more, children are indirectly denied the right to live because of the hazardous situations they are often put in. It is vital to take action upon this matter. Until and unless child labor eradication is further attempted, thousands of children everyday will continue to face inhuman abuse and not experience the simple joys of childhood. They will continue to be deprived of their basic rights and the denial of their education will form a repetitive pattern for children in future generations, which will resultantly affect the country’s productivity as well.
The government must take upon more responsibility regarding this matter. Primarily, the government must follow up on its policies. In addition, safer environments must be formed for which effective mechanisms need to be developed in order to prevent violence, protect children from exploitation and harm, and prosecute those who refuse to follow state policies and laws. The reintegration and rehabilitation of children into the community is also vital. Moreover, it is evident that after parents become more aware of their children’s rights and the ways in which their children are being deprived of them, they became more sympathetic towards their children and find less reason to send them to work [A. Mobiul. November 14 2009.]. Thus it is crucial to raise awareness upon this issue, for it is mainly for the lack of awareness that there is little urgency in the prevention of the violation of children’s rights in child labor.
8. Works Cited
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M., Asad. Personal interview. 30 Oct. 2009.
Miles, David. 13 Oct. 2009. PowerPoint Presentatio.
Muyeed, Aparna. Personal interview. 12 July 2009.
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Child Labor in Developing Countries: Evidence From Cross-Country Data .” American Journal of Public Health. N.p., 28 Dec. 2006. Web. 12 Sept. 2009.
“Set Up Ombudsman to Safeguard Child Rights.” The Daily Star 9 Oct. 2009: n. pag. Print.
