UN News: December 10

International Human Rights Day is celebrated every December 10 as a way to promote, defend, and remember the basic human rights of every person in every country.

On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The human rights of Bangladeshi citizens are violated every minute of every day. One of largest groups to face constant abuse and discrimination is also one of the most vulnerable – working children.

According to UN estimates, 6.3 million children under 18 work in Bangladesh, around 80 percent in rural areas. The rest are in the urban sector, mostly in the informal economy where they are exposed to the most hazardous conditions, unprotected by labour laws. Deprived of their basic right to a childhood, these children have no education. Instead, they work in construction, beedi making, leather tanning, plastics, car repair and brick breaking. They are sold for sex or trafficked abroad as camel jockeys. They provide slave labour to rich houses in big cities. Working children suffer serious health problems and they cannot develop properly either physically or mentally. They also suffer verbal, physical and sexual abuse and are exposed to drugs, violence and crime.

Child Labour in Bangladesh:

Facts and Figures

Bangladesh accounts for more than five percent of the world’s working child population.
Of the employed child workers, 59.8 percent are males and 40.2 percent are females.
Children work 48 hours a week. Nearly half do not earn any salary.

19 percent of children aged 5 to 14 years work. 11.6 percent of the child labour force is 5 to 9 years and the rest are 10 to 14 years.

17 percent of working children live in the urban areas and the rest in the rural areas.

Agriculture accounts for 65.4 percent of the child workers, followed by services (10.3 percent), manufacturing (8.2 percent) and transport and communication (1.8 percent).

Other activities including household work account for 14.3 percent of working children.

from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics survey

There are several causes of child labour, with poverty being the single most important factor. Families need their children to provide income for their survival.

Another reason is the appalling education system that does not provide poor children with the means of finding good jobs. Parents do not value the long-term benefits of education but look for immediate returns. They also feel that their children can learn a skill on the job rather than waste time in school. Despite government help, education is still a luxury for many poor families who need to pay for clothes, books and transport. While enrollment levels have risen, the dropout rate is high, especially when families are faced with some disaster – both natural and man-made - that needs funds.

And of course, without the demand, there would be no need of the supply. Employers like cheap, uncomplaining and easily controlled workers: children do not know their rights or how to fight for them.

Tackling child labour therefore requires a coordinated effort to address all the causes including poverty, lack of good education, harmful attitudes and low public awareness.

A main UN agency involved in the fight against child labour is the ILO, under its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). In Bangladesh, it has two main projects - preventing and eliminating worst forms of child labour, and elimination of child labour in the urban informal sector. There are also other projects tackling women’s employment, trafficking for employment, micro-finance schemes and child labour rehabilitation.

Recently ILO and the Bangladesh government signed an agreement for a time-bound programme for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. ILO, in partnership with ADB and UNICEF, will assist the government to formulate policy and direct action to address the problem.

“In our programme, we are developing models that can be applied to the time-bound programme,” says Ronald Berghuys, chief technical advisor to the IPEC programme on the prevention and elimination of child labour in the urban informal sector. The programme aims to remove children from hazardous workplaces and give them a non-formal education with a view to eventually getting them back into primary education in schools. Older children are given skills training and re-inserted into the labour market in safe conditions. Families of child workers are given micro-credit to begin income-generating activities to shift their dependency away from their children’s incomes.

“So far we have opened 92 multipurpose centers in Dhaka where children are given skills training and parents can come for financial training and life skills training,” says Mr Berghuys. The method is being tested and can be revised as it goes along.

ILO has also launched a public awareness campaign to educate civil society, politicians, religious leaders, children, parents and communities on the perils of child labour while enlisting their support to prevent it.

“Every child has a right to education and a right to be free of labour,” Mr Berghuys stresses.