A campaign to end child labour, ensure education

by Noor Mohammad

ACCORDING
to
the
International
Labour
Organization and the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, a child is any person under
the age of 18.
WHO, UNICEF and UNFPAin 1989
10-19 are adolescents,
15-24 are youth and
Inclusively 10-24 are defined as young people.
As per Bangladeshs constitution, age 18 is marked
as the beginning of adulthood and from then a
citizen gets the right to vote. Any person in
Bangladesh who is below 18 is treated as child; as
per the national youth policy, youths are those in the
age
bracket
of
18-35.
With all these definitions, a complex global issue
often raised in the arena of development is child
labour. Despite all restrictions, conventions and
policy formulations, it exists in almost every country.
The prevalence of child labour has become a
serious problem in the world.

However, not all work involving children is a

concern. Developmentally appropriate economic
activity can be beneficial to the full development of
a child, but at its extreme, work can place a childs
life and wellbeing at risk.
Work that is exploitative, dangerous and detrimental
to the physical, social, moral or spiritual
development of children, or inhibits a childs ability
to receive a quality, relevant education, is
considered hazardous labour and poses a major
human rights and socioeconomic challenge
(Children
at
Work,
Care,
2007).
Globally 317 million children are economically
active, 215 million child labourers and 115 working
in hazardous conditions (Concern Worldwide,
2013).
Child labourers are economically active children
who do work that prevent them from going to school
or are dangerous. For example, a 15-year old who
delivers newspapers is not a child labourer (but is
economically active) but a 14-year old working in a
factory for more than 14 hours a week is.

Social norms and economic realities mean that child

labour is widely accepted and very common in
Bangladesh.
Many families rely on the income generated by their
children for survival, so child labour is often highly
valued.
Additionally, employers often prefer to employ
children because they are cheaper and considered
to be more complaint and obedient than adults.
When children are forced to work, they are often
denied their rights to education, leisure and play.
They are also exposed to situations that make them
vulnerable to trafficking, abuse, violence and
exploitation.
Millions of children are reported not to attend
school,
however
estimates
vary.
Certain groups of children are more likely to work
than others, for instance boys comprise about
three-quarters of all working children. In slums,
almost one in five children aged 5-14 are child
labourers and of these, only 25 per cent attend
school (BBS/UNICEF, Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey, 2007).
Rapid urbanisation means that more children will
move into urban slums and be compelled to work.

Child employment rates increase with age, but even

about two per cent of five-year olds and three per
cent of six-year olds work (UNICEF, ILO, World
Bank
Group,
2009).
So, the scenario has been changing over the
period. Despite efforts from national and
international communities, ending child labour is a
challenge and would remain as challenge in the
upcoming days.
As we all know, poverty, lack of quality education,
cheap labour, poor enforcement of regulations and
cultural traditions are main barriers to the
elimination of child labour and thus childrens right
continue to be violated around the world.
Bangladesh has made significant progress in
education over the past three decades. Still, many
school-aged children from the poorest families in
Bangladesh either do not enrol or discontinue
school due to poverty.
In 2012, as per BANBEIS data, 4.2 million kids were
enrolled in Grade I leaving nearly 2 million primary
school-aged children out of school in Bangladesh.
The governments programme focused on the
formal primary sector that supported about 19

million students (Grade I-V) and still many children

were out of school.
These were the children who had missed out
schooling at the right age or had been forced to
drop out, mainly because of poverty. Many could
not afford to buy uniforms or books, to pay for
transport if they lived far from the school or might
have been needed to earn vital income to feed the
family.
As a consequence, these children were deprived of
education which drastically reduced their chances
of finding higher-earning jobs that could lift them
and
their
families
out
of
poverty.
The government of Bangladesh has made
significant progress in recent years to increase
primary-school-age enrolment rates to cover 96 per
cent of boys and 99 per cent of girls.
However, access to education remains a challenge
for vulnerable groups, particularly working children,
disabled children, indigenous children and those in
remote areas or living in extreme poverty.
Only half of all children living in slums attend
school, a rate 18 percentage points lower than the
national average.

Drop-out rates have made substantial progress

where in 2006 the proportion of pupils starting
grade one who reach grade 5 was 63.6 per cent, in
2009 this has increased to 79.8 per cent.
However, progress is still required in this area.
Absenteeism is also a significant problem.
Parents often withdraw their children from school as
a strategy for coping with natural disasters or
economic difficulties, such as rising food prices.
Recent studies show that boys are more likely to
drop out of school than girls, or not enrol at all,
pointing to an emerging gender imbalance.
There is no agreement about how best to respond
to child labour. With so many challenges to
overcome, is it even possible to eliminate child
labour?
Thus, the curse of child labour remains a cruel
reality in Bangladesh. UCEP being a national nongovernmental organisation has been trying to
transform lives of these children with the power of
education.
Many of these children are still bound to work at
home and/or outside either to make a living or in
response to families unaffordability of hired labour.

Such dual challenges of education and working

have made the childrens lives very difficult.
If we support these childrens education and allow
them only to concentrate on education then they will
be able to bring positive changes in everyones life.