They were freed following signing of a historical accord at a simple ceremony here on Thursday. Local NGO, Setu signed the agreement with the owners of four major bidi factories.

The factories are Akiz Bidi Factory, Nasir Bidi Factory, Banani Bidi Factory and N Zaman Bidi Factory.

With immense pleasure, parents of the children aged between 5-17 and people from all walks of life witnessed the accord signing ceremony held at Nasir Uddin Biswas Memorial Hall at Allahar Darga Bazaar in Daulatpur upazila.

ILO (International Labour Organisation) sponsored the agreement. The United States Depart-ment of Labour (USDOL) funded the ILO project named PEWFCL (Prevention and Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour).

Chief Technical Advisor of the IPEC project of ILO, Suwjeeka Fonseka was present as special guest while AT Siddique, Section Coordinator of the USDOL Project attended the function.

M A Kader, Executive Director of SETU, Ahsanul Haq Assistant Programme Coordinator of BTUK, Jasim Uddin Assistant Programme Coordinator of SETU, Faruk Ahmed, Chairman of Mothurapur Union Parishad, Nurur Rahman of Nasir Bidi Factory, Sahidul Islam of Banai Bidi Factory, Babu Susil Kumar of Mansur Bidi Factory, Khorshed Alam of Akiz Bidi Factory and Abdus Sattatr of N Zaman Bidi Factory addressed on the occasion. Abdus Siddiqe Mollah, President, Primary School Teachers' Association, Daulatpur upazila presided over.

Another major factory, Mansur Bidi Factory signed a similar agreement on May 10 last year freeing 200 child labourers. With the latest accord, all the bidi factories here declared not to employ children in their factories in future.

ILO launched the programme targeting all working children freedom from bidi factories. SETU took the responsibility. In two years, SETU freed 2,090 children from five bidi factories.

SETU distributed Tk 28 lakh among parents and trained children with a view to raising their income so that children are not employed in bidi factories.