Raights Corner
Child labour and lost opportunities for an educated nation
Yasir Mustafa
"Why do we have to pay the price of poverty? We didn't create poverty, adults did."
Sultana, a twelve-year garment factory worker from Bangladesh, trafficked to Thailand, 14 February,1998.
A few days ago, I went to the hardware shops near the Banani Bazaar to buy some materials for a design technology project. On the way back, I saw some children aged between 8 and 14 working in the shops and helping buyers to carry out the goods. I called one of those child workers. As I'm doing a project to raise awareness of child labour, I wanted to interview some of them and I took this opportunity.
“What is your name?" I asked one of them.
"Tajul" He answered. Tajul is 9 years old and works as a porter in Banani Bazaar. He is the youngest among his four brothers and sister.
"Do you go to school, Tajul?" I asked him and he said he doesn't because his other siblings go to school and his family is not able to bear his educational expenses. It actually surprised me because the government provides primary education free for everyone, but lots of children are deprived of this opportunity.
Then I asked him if he gets a chance to go to school, would he take it or not. He was so glad to hear my offer. He agreed but he wanted to start from next year. He also introduced me to his other friends who work with him and want to go to school. I was surprised after seeing their eagerness for education.
How big is the problem?
The child labour statistics varies by the sources. The child labour survey conducted in 2005 by Bangladesh Burueau of Statistics (BBS) was called 'Baseline Survey to Determine Hazardous Child Labour Sectors in Bangladesh-2005'. According to this, there are 7.9 million child 
workers in Bangladesh. The total number of working children aged 5 to 17 years in the rural areas of Bangladesh is 6.4 million whereas only 1.5 million children work in cities. Among these children, 1.3 million are estimated to work 43 hours or more per week. 52 per cent of these workers were abused and scolded and 16.7 percent were physically abused.
There are thousands of Tajuls all over Bangladesh for whom poverty is the main obstacle to education. Bangladesh is one of the developing countries of the third world where about 55 million (approx. 40% of total population) people still live below the poverty level. Poverty plays a crucial role in child labour. Most of these children are from poor families and working for survival. Although government provides free education for everyone, in some cases, 'free' public education appears very expensive for them because they're expected to buy their books and stationery! So, education becomes a financial burden for them and they loose interest for it. From the story of Tajul, we can easily realise that poverty is the main cause of child labour in Bangladesh. Almost 45 percent of child workers could not attend school because they can't afford the expenses and 19.5 percent child workers could not go to school due to their work.
Most of the people in the rural areas of Bangladesh are illiterate and tend to have more children even though they're unable to bear the family expenditures. Most of the children from those families are deprived of schooling and start working for family income. Another reason for child labour is that illiterate people are unable to understand the importance of education and prioritize income more than education. Bangladesh has a father-led society and most of the family depends on the father's income. They have to take care of the family after the death of their father. When their father dies, elder children of the family as well as the younger, have to work for survival. So, each year lots of children start working this way.
Child workers usually cost less than adult workers and some deceitful employers use them in their factories to get more profit. In most cases, working condition is poor and unsafe for the children. The biggest advantage of it is the children are less likely to complain and rebel against the superiors if they are paid lower wages than what they are supposed to be paid.
Children are the future citizens of a country. What will happen if this future gets damaged just because of our unawareness or intention of making a profit by using these children to work for our benefit? We should not let this future to be drowned in the dark. These children working as labour are the future generation of our country, but they are dealing with machinery instead of having books in their hands. Although it is difficult to stop child labour or prevent it from happening but we can try to control it. So, we all have to work together to ensure these children's future.
What can be done?
To break the chain of child labour is a long process and it can't be done overnight. Many organisations are trying to address this issue but are facing immense challenges. As individuals, each of us should do something to save our future generation. Our small contribution can make these children happy and help them to lead a better life!
Poverty is the main cause of the child labour. So to stop child labour, we should first focus on reducing poverty. Most of the poor and developing countries like Bangladesh have internal payment difficulty. To balance this payment difficulty, International Monetary Fund (IMF) applies a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) for respective country which pressurises government to cut down social spending on health and education. It has hardest impact on poor people's life. These SAP projects are not helping people to lead a better life. So, we have to get rid of this kind of programmes. The donations from the developed countries should be spent on the people's health and education properly. We can reduce our poverty by making sure that the money and relief that are allocated for the poor people are given to them properly.
To stop child labour, we also have to make sure that the parents don't have to send their children to work for the family budget. If the adults get enough wages to survive, they don't have to depend on their children to support family expenses. It can be done by providing the youth training to become more skilled which will help them to increase their wages.
Child labour situation is worse in countries where children don't get proper education. Most of the people in the rural areas of Bangladesh are incapable to realise the importance of education. Besides free education government can also make vocational education available for everyone. People who are not able to go to school for longer period because they have to support their family can take these vocational trainings which will help them to improve their working skills.
According to CRC (Convention of Right of Children) any person below 18 years is considered as child. International convention like CRC and national legislative guidelines give authorities the right to convict any person who treats badly with the children. In 1990, 188 United Nations member countries approved the Convention of the Right of Children (CRC) to use it as monitoring tool. Despite that fact, very few of us have respect for Child Rights and some of us don't even know about it. To establish the rights of the children, we should abide by the CRC code and government can implement the laws properly where applicable. Many multi-national companies adopted a code of conduct to stop using children under age 15 in the factories. So, all companies should follow this policy to stop child labour.
Elimination of child labour is a long process and it can't be done without the help of everyone. The best way to stop child abuse is to make people aware about child rights. We should encourage the local communities to treat them well.
We must do something to save and take care of these children. We have to carry out their dreams towards realisation. It's not their fault they are poor. They also have rights to live like any other children.
Photo: AFP
The writer is a student of International school Dhaka.
