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Elimination of child labour

Nat'l action plan to be launched next fiscal

By Reaz Ahmad
An ambitious National Plan of Action on Child Labour' will be launched in the next financial year, according to official sources.
The priority areas of action under the plan will cover all types of hazardous and abusive child labour including child labour in welding and other engineering works, construction sector, quarrying and brick breaking., bldi factories. leather industry, shrimp Industry and tea plantation as well as child
trafficking and child prostitution, the sources added.
The action programme and its funding for fiscal 1998-99 will be finalised in the ILO-IPEC (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour) meeting beginning on September 26 in Turin. Italy The programme will be funded jointly by the Bangladesh government. ILO. IPEC and honors
Dr Wahfdur Rahman. National Programme Coordinator of ILO-IPEC. will represent Bangladesh in the meeting, to be attended by representatives from 25 other countries.
A donors' meeting for funding the Plan of Action is also likely to be held in Dhaka, the sources said.
Labour Secretary Md Ahsan All Sarker told The Daily Star that the full implementation of the Plan of Action, having short, medium and long-term components, could stretch upto year 2010. He. however, added Speedy implementation will largely depend on inflow of money".
According to a National Sample Survey on Child Labour, the total number of child workers of 5-14 age group is about 6.3 million in Bangladesh. Only four per cent of them are in formal sectors while 96 per cent are employed in informal sectors.
A study titled Hazardous Child Labour in Bangladesh' revealed that child labourers are employed in 17 types ol economic activities which are hazardous in many ways. The study was Jointly carried out by Department of Labour, UNICEF and ILO.
As a member country of the SAARC, Bangladesh is commit ted to eliminate hazardous child labour by the year 2000 and all forms of child labour by 2010.
To attain these goals. Bangladesh prepared the National Plan of Action on Child Labour at a joint meeting of the Labour and Manpower Ministry and ILO-IPEC in May this year. Representatives of seven relevant ministries and agencies of the government, employers associations, trade unions. NGOs, and UNICEF also participated in that meeting. The National Steering Committee of IPEC has also approved the National Plan of Action.
The Plan of Action will also Include on updated situation analysis' preparing a child labour policy, suggesting legis-
lations and their enforcement, measures to ensure social security and rehabilitation of working children, non-formal and vocational education for children and creating awareness about children s rights.
The Plan of Action also aims at opening a Child Labour Cell’ in the Labour Ministry and establishing a National Council on Child Labour' comprising representatives of the government. BEA (Bangladesh Employers Association), workers' union. NGOs and other relevant agencies.
It alms at fixing the minimum age for admission to work at 14 In general and 18 for hazardous occupations, stopping begging by children on the streets, improving working conditions, reducing working hours and providing personal protective equipment, and developing a mechanism for ensuring minimum wage for child workers,
An official, however, explained that fixing the mini mum wage would not mean recognition to child labour because It would be for a transitional period till full elimina-tion of child labour. On an average, a child worker in the country work for about 27 hours a week and earn about Tk 478 per month, according to the National Survey.