Children who are forced to work in the sweatshops of Bangladesh's tannery, welding and chemical industries rallied by the hundreds in that nations capital of Dhaka Sunday demanding an end to child labor. In the crowd were banners which read “Adults will work, children will go to school" and "We want child-labour-free Bangladesh.”
There are millions kids between the ages of five and seventeen working to help support their families in Bangladesh. One of those kids, Nazmin Akter, 10, told reporters at the rally, “I hate to work, but I do that just to help my parents.” Her mother works as a maid and her father pedals a rickshaw on the streets of Dhaka, a city of ten million people. According to 7 Days, Akter has no weekly holiday and works at least ten hours a day, earning just 250 takas ($4) a month. For good measure, she is often beaten by the factory owner or some other goon if she makes any mistakes at work.
Shampa Khatun, 8, who also attended the Sunday's rally, said she worked at a tannery factory for six hours daily with her mother. She told an AP reporter, “I wash leathers with chemicals," Khatun, who earns takas 150 (US$2.5) a week. Showing wound on her hands, she said she does not use any gloves at the factory she works. "I have sent her to work as my husband is unable to work for his illness," Khatun's mother Rani Begum said after the rally. "What can I do with my sick husband without sending her to work?"
Another 500 children, joined by laborers from tobacco factories and transport and construction rallied in Kushtia.
One more rally which included a human chain of more than 1000 children was held in Daulatpur.
According to a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) as a result of a commitment made by the government with International Labor Organization (ILO) there are 4.9 million working children— 14.2 per cent of the total 35.06 million children in the age group of 5-14 years. The total working child population between 5 and 17 years old is estimated at 7.9 million. The ILO also reports:
• 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. Agriculture engages 4.5 million (56.4 per cent children), while the services sector engages 2 million (25.9 per cent), and industry, 1.4 million (17.7 per cent);
• A total of 1.3 million children are estimated to be working 43 hours or more per week. More boys than girls are engaged in this form of child labor across all age groups.
Not surprisingly further studies have found that extreme poverty is the main cause of child labor. The ILO says,” Child labor is part of a vicious cycle, with poverty as a main cause as well as a main consequence.”
The ILO also has found, “Nearly 50 per cent of primary school students drop out before they complete grade 5, and then gravitate towards work, swelling the number of child laborers.”
The Daily Star reports that after an ILO program had some success in freeing children from tobacco factories in the town of Kushtia, that organization is now launching a ten year program to completely eliminate the use of children from that hazardous job. The project will also target some other sectors of industry in the country.The original program took about 3000 children of eight big tobacco factories in Kushtia and Daulatpur and then enrolled them in schools.
The planned launch of the new program was announced as part of the International Day Against Child Labour-2005 activities held in Daulatpur and Kushtia on Sunday. Sources: Daily Star (Bangladesh), 7 Days, CBC, Human Rights Education Association, ILO
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