Reference Feature

Child labour is simply the most severe form of child exploitation and child abuse in the world today. In any society, working children, as a socio-economic group, happens to be the most disadvantaged of all since "they are forced to work for a living, sacrificing their childhood as well as their future for bare survival of self and family" (Masum 1999). Today, as individual well being increasingly depends on literacy, numeracy and intellectual competence, a child working is in fact a future denied.

The overwhelming majority of working children is found in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Child labour also exists in many industrialised countries and is emerging in a number of East European countries that are now in transition to a free market economy. Although Bangladesh accounts for less than 2 percent of the world population, it is the home of 6.6 million working children, accounting for more than 5 percent of the world's working child population numbering 120 million. In Bangladesh children are found working in almost all the sectors of the economy except mining, quarrying, electricity, gas and water. Many of them work 48 hours a week on an average, earning less than 500 taka per month. A large number of children work in occupations and industries, which are plainly dangerous and hazardous.

Early involvement of children in work leads to serious health and developmental consequences. Working children suffer significant growth deficits as compared with school children. They grow up shorter and lighter, and their body size continues to be smaller even in adulthood. Many of them work under conditions that leave them alarmingly vulnerable to chemical and biological hazards. Child workers tend to develop muscular, chest and abdominal pain, headaches, dizziness, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and worm infection. Poor working conditions make them more susceptible than their adult colleagues to infectious diseases, injuries and other workplace-related ailments. Many even experience amputations or loss of body parts. Moreover, children in certain occupations experience particular types of abuse. Child domestic workers are often found to be victims of verbal and sexual abuse, beating or punishment by starvation. Children, engaged in scavenging, rag-picking or marginal economic activities in the streets, are exposed to drugs, violence, and criminal activities, physical and sexual abuse in many parts of the country.

Children have the right to be children: "to be loved, cherished, educated, nourished, clothed, pampered, and fostered as children when they are children" (Hasnat 1996, quoted from Natoli 1992). Child labour is, then, a denial of the right to enjoy childhood and achieve full physical and psychological development. Worse still, many hundreds of children are trapped in forced labour, debt bondage, prostitution and other kinds of jobs that cause lasting and devastating damage. Obviously the formulation of a National Plan of Action for the elimination of child labour in the country is a need of the hour. A critical evaluation of the nature and magnitude of the problem should, however, precede such an exercise. This paper is intended to serve as a humble step in that direction. Supply factors: Poverty is the single most important factor responsible for the prevalence of child labour in the country. About 55 million people live below the poverty line in Bangladesh. Poor households badly need the money that their children earn. They commonly contribute around 20-25 percent of family income. Since poor households spend the bulk of their income on food, the earnings of working children are critical to their survival.