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Measures are Yet to be there to Discourage Child Labour

by Akhtar Hamid Mansur
DURING a hartal day', a rickshaw-van was carrying as many as seven persons. As the rickshawpuller was not capable of pulling his van alone, a minor boy hardly of nine years, was pushing the vehicle.
A couple of weeks back. I was travelling by train from Dhaka to Chittagong. When 1 reached the Chittagong railway station at night, a little boy surely to be less than eight years of age, was pleading to carry my baggage. When 1 refused him. the rickety boy told me he has not eaten anything since morning.
One national weekly reported how eleven-year-old Anis and thirteen-year-old Alt Akbar became thieves. The report disclosed the pathetic fact that If they don't go back to their gang leader after their release from Jail, their very lives would be at stake.
Another daily newspaper reported how the child of a maid servant In Dhaka was sold to a man of Sylhet by the person in whose house she was working. It reported the grotesque experience the child had during his period of slavery.
An English dally reported that general railway police of Dhaka rescued Laila, a thirteen-year-old girl who was forced to prostitution.
These are not any isolated Incidents: these testily to the general condition of children in our society. Just because of daily news papers or weeklies, we came to know their plight. But are they alone? Are not there many other Anis, All Akbar or Laila in Bangladesh who are living under sub-human level with acute sufferings and humiliation?
When we witnessed the noted TV film The Roots' we were awed at the plight of Kunta Kinte. When we sympathised with the Kunta Kintes,
we also denounced In unequivocal terms all forms of slavery. But the background of The Roots" dates back to several hundred years. And in today's civilised society, the condi tions of Anis, AH Akbar and Laila arc nothing above slavery
The above Incidents arc a kind of deprivation of baste human rights. According to United Nations Charter, every child can claim all the rights guaranteed by the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Their rights arc further guaranteed by the declaration of the UN General Assembly on 20 November. 1959.
The United Nations categorically denounces all forms of child labour. The member states of the world body have also unanimously adopted the declaration of the rights of the children ensuring their right to adequate nutrition, medical care, education, housing and right to learn to be useful member of the society.
• Under the declaration of the rights of a child adopted in 1959, all members of the United Nations declared that a child, because of his/her physical and mental immaturity needs social safeguards and care both before and after birth, and that Individual and groups should strive to achieve children's rights by legislation and other means. But reality Is far from the avowed declaration.
In today's world, violations of the rights of the children have become most widespread. Slavery-type practices involv-
ing children Is widespread throughout the world Bond service for debt, sale of children. child prostitution, exploitation of child labour etc. have plagued the so-called civilised world
Millions of children are used and abused In labour forces around the world. They loti long hours, work tn hazardous conditions and receive paltry wages Their childhood slips away as they risk both physical and mental well-being so that they and their family can survive. Few realise that they are entitled to something better.
According to a report of the International Labour Or-ganisaUon. more than 75 mA-lion children between the age of 8 and 13 years work in the labour forces of the developing world. A UN report, however, estimates almost double that number work throughout the world.
Both ILO and UN give a gloomy and rapidly Increasing picture of child labour throughout the world saying "there are no ground for optimism that the condition and the plight of the children would Improve". In India, an investigation entitled A sub-proletariat In short-trousers' discloses that despite legislative regulations, the exploitations of child labour is a common practice. In Bombay, almost half of the entire labour force come from children aging below 14 years.
Let us look al a developed country Italy, where in 1989 about 9 per cent of victims bf -Industrial accidents were chll dren or adolescents. In Italy, It Is estimated that -some 150.000 children arc working illegally in construction work, about 100.000 in Industries and 200,000 in agriculture.
in Columbia, the picture Is evenmore gloomy A UNICEF report shows that more than 3 million children are working there, many of them 280 me tres underground In mines. They must fill 30 sacks of coal a day to earn leas than quarter of a dollar.
According to an estimate compiled by the International
ber of children aged under J 5 In the labour force by regions are: Africa 9.6 million (i.e. 17.5% of the estimate child labourforce of the world). East Asia 9.9 million (18.12%), South Asia 30.5 million (55%) and Europe and North America 1.3 million (2.4%).
South Asia, which comprises Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan. Sri Lanka and Pakistan engages the highest percentage of child labour (55%). This is Indeed a terrifying figure.
Another ILO report shows that Mall has the highest number of child labour (45%) followed by Bhutan (44%), Upper Volta (43%). Ivory Coast (37%). Bangladesh (32%). Haiti (29%). India (20%). Brazil (11%). Mexico (6%). Srl
Lanka (4%). Japan and USA 2% each and Sweden only 0.4%.
The position becomes even more unbelievable when one considers that most of these countries are signatories to the ILO conventions, particularly the convention number 138 on minimum age and agreed to prohibit the employment of children below that age limit. The convention states "each member for which this convention Is In force undertakes to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons. The minimum age shall not be less than 15 years."
In Bangladesh, children below 10 years of age constitutes about 38% of the total labour force of the country. A number of factors are contributing to the increased child labour. First almost half of the country's total population Is below 16 years. As a result. It has become inevitable to engage labour force of that age or below. Secondly poverty. It Is the single important factor, which unless solved, will never pave the way for decreasing child labour. Bangladesh being the second poorest country of the world having per capita income of 110 dollars annually needs second and even third line of income for bare survival of a family. Thirdly, wealth of the country is not distributed in a balanced way among all segments of the population.
As a result, majority of the people live much below the subsistence level which forces
the children of this age group to go to work even at the ten der age of five to earn an extra morsel of rice or extra money for their family Fourthly, lack of bask- education It can be evident from the child labour statistics of Sri Lanka (only 4%) that education In that country (about 85% are literate) helped Immensely decrease child labour
In Bangladesh, rate of literacy Is about 20% As a result, the poor* who constitute the vast majority of the country's population prefer sending their children to work at a tender age instead of sending them to educational institutions. Because, to them child labour pays instant dividend. On the otherhand. the poor who can hardly afford meals twice a day think that educational expenses is nothing but luxury It should also be taken Into account that the number of educational Institution in the country Is pathetically low In comparison to the need.
Another important factor regarding the spread of child labour In the country Is that children between 8 and 15 sell their labour at a very cheap rate. A UNICEF report says, in Bangladesh, most children work only because they must work. The hard fact is that children between the ages of 8 and 15 must earn If their family is to survive. Child labour in Bangladesh accounts for about 30 per cent of the total family income. The work the children undertake seriously Impairs their physical health. The effects of exertion, fatigue and over-work on the developing body are bound to hinder, counteract, retard or even halt growth apart from the matter of industrial diseases and accidents. The cothblncd effects of anaemia, malnutrition and over work often are Irreversible.
But how long this state of child labour will continue? We all know the fact that with the increase of child labour we are virtually developing a future generation of unproductive workers with bleak national prospect.