Issue: Elimination of Worst form of Child Labour

Overview:

Bangladesh is an agricultural country with a current GDP per capita of about US$ 377 (BBS, Pocket Book 2001). In 2002, the country had a total population of 130 million, with a population density of 874 persons per sq. km. The rural population comprises 84.4 percent of the total. There are approximately 20 million households in the country with an average household size of 5.6 persons. The population is predominantly young, with 13 percent under 5 years of age and 41 percent under 15. Children below 18 years constitute nearly half of the population (43% of total population) in Bangladesh.

Child labor could be considered as the most important child rights issue in Bangladesh, given the very large number of children and linkages with other rights violations (e.g child physical and sexual abuse and trafficking). The National Child labour Survey, 2002-03 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics was conducted throughout the country and covered the child population aged 5-17 years living in the households. The estimated number of children in this age category was about 42.5 million (as on 1st January 2003) of which 22.7 million were boys and 19.7 million were girls. According to the National Child labour Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 17.5 per cent of the total child population in the 5-17 years age group (approximately 7.4 million) was engaged in economic activity in 2002-03. Out of the working children about 5.4 million were boys and 2.0 million were girls. The incidence of child labour in Bangladesh during 2002-03 was estimated at about 3.2 million out of 7.4 million working children based on the criteria of hour, of which permitted in relation to age as followed by ILO in Global Estimates on Child Labour, 2002. Out of the total child labour, 2.5 million were boys and 0.7 million were girls. Only 6.7 per cent of the child labor was in the formal sector, the rest of 93.3 per cent were in the informal sector . About 38.6 per cent of the surveyed households reported having working children in the 5-17 years age group. Of these, 16.5 per cent were urban and 22.1 per cent were rural.

In recent years, attention has increasingly been focused on child labour in the formal, organized sector, especially the garments manufacturing and exporting sector. Following the controversy generated by the Harkins Bill, children in garments factories were removed from the factories and they were shifted to less viable jobs in the unorganized informal sector. While many girls worked as menial domestic helps in private households, pimps and traffickers unwittingly recruited others for prostitution. There were still others who frequented the streets, engaging in various occupations.

While the number of children in the organized labor sector has decreased, there is a greater prevalence of child workers in the unorganized informal sector. Children, being an invisible workforce, are occupied in many hazardous occupations in the informal sector. Apart from work in agriculture and family enterprises, children work as domestic servants, street vendors, brick chippers, rag pickers, in the beedi factories, as caterers in restaurant and hotels and so forth. Children occupied in such diverse occupations are exploited in terms of wages, hours of work and type of work. They are frequently denied their remuneration, engaged in work for interminable hours and confined to unhygienic, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, resulting in respiratory diseases and physical disabilities. Job security is virtually absent where children are hired and fired indiscriminately. Consequently, child workers are unable to stay in one place for long and compelled to seek new jobs. In addition, to the occupational hazards, children are often exposed to physical and sexual abuse.

Like other least developing countries, Bangladesh suffers from myriad problems and difficulties, both social and economical. Despite having a stable economic growth rate, Bangladesh is still categorized as a poor country, where about half of the population live below the poverty line. In terms of Human Development Index (HDI), Bangladesh was ranked 72 among 88 developing countries (the second from the bottom among South Asia countries- Nepal ranked the bottom at 76) in 2002. Among the poor, about 28 million people are considered to be living under extreme poor conditions. Extreme forms of poverty play a crucial role in the context of child labour as children’s work and earnings become an integral part of the overall survival strategy of poor families. Poverty engenders susceptibility and vulnerability, particularly for the children, at family and community levels. Despite impressive progress over the last decade, levels of child malnutrition remain extremely high in Bangladesh. The economic and social costs of child malnutrition are high. It impairs learning and cognitive development, thereby affecting schooling performance and completion. Based on the findings of the two surveys (Child Nutrition Survey 2000 and the Demographic and Health Survey 1999-2000), in Bangladesh, nearly one-half of children below the age of 6 years are underweight or stunted. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has taken initiatives to mitigate the problems of worst form of Child labour in Bangladesh through ILO/IPEC. Two projects are being implemented under direct supervision of ILO/IPEC, Preventing & Eliminating the Worst form of Child labour in Selected formal & Informal Sector by USDOL and another Project is “ Preventing & Elimination of the Worst form of child labour in the informal economy of Dhaka, Funded by the Government of Netherlands which has covered only 60000 children. The need is still demandable, so that, in this context BSAF as a Networking Organization can play a vital role on Media campaigns and awareness raising advocacy and lobbying in Nation-wide.

Planning Matrix

Expected Out come	Major Activity	Implementation Strategy	Time Frame
01. National Child Labour Policy Finalized	·        Advocacy and lobbying with relevant Government agency and policy makers	·        Alliance building and perform as a pressure and facilitating group ·        Involvement of civil society actors	January –2004  June 2005
02. Proper execution of Child labour Policy (CLP) ensured	·        Preparation and dissemination of user-friendly version of national child labour policy, so that mass people can involve themselves directly or indirectly with the implementation of CLP. ·        Monitoring and evaluation of implementation of CLP ·        Media campaign ·        Preparation of user-friendly version of all laws related to child labour and its dissemination.	·        Workshop, Seminar, Orientation, capacity building from central to Upazila level ·        Research, Survey, Study ·        National/ Regional workshop on process and progress of Child Labour Policy (CLP) where national representatives of participating countries (if any) will present the status report ·        Involvement of celebrities, print & electronic media, talk show etc. ·        Workshop/ Seminar/ Training orientation	July 04-December 07 4th Quarter of 2005,2007,2009, 2011, 2013 July 04- December 04 January 05-December08
3. Baseline Survey on Child labour ensured	·        In corporation of Child labour issue in the questionnaire of population census. ·        Monitoring & Supervision	·        Lobbying with BBS, MOLE ·        Alliance building with member organizations and local administration. ·        Workshop/Seminar/dialogue	June- 2011
04. Children Parliament discussed all activities regarding Elimination of Worst form of Child Labour	·        Arrange question and answer session ·        Develop voting system	·        Parliament sessions ·        Parliamentary committee	Every year from 2006
05. Worst form of Child Labour reduced	·        Advocacy and lobbying with relevant Government agency and policy makers, employers	·        Alliance building and perform as a pressure and facilitating group ·        Involvement of civil society actors ·        Workshop, Seminar, Orientation, capacity building from central to Upazila level ·        National/ Regional workshop on process and progress of Child Labour Policy (CLP) where national representatives of participating countries (if any) will present the status report	2004-2014