Victims of forced child labour, a large number of minor boys are passing days amid horrendous conditions in the fishermen's colonies along the coastal belt of Dublarchar from where law enforcers rescued over a thousand of minor boys in last four years.

Scanty information is available about what is going on in the remote fishermen's colonies.

Sources, however, said over 10,000 minor boys are employed in arduous and risky jobs under six thousand fishermen in areas along the coastal belt.

The minor boys, employed in hard work for long hours without adequate food and

other facilities including healthcare services, arc brought from different parts of the country in the name of providingjobs.

But once taken to the 'labour camps', the minor boys are disconnected from their families and made to do arduous works of cooking, sorting of fishes and drying them up for which they hardly get any wage.

There are allegations that the minor boys have to undergo various forms of torture including sodomy by fish traders.

According to a survey carried out by n o n -government organisation (NGO) CPD, 67 boys were killed by tigers, crocodiles, sharks and wild boars from 1998 to 2003 in the coastal

belts of the Sundarbans.

Over 3,000 tonnes of shutki fish are transported to different places of the county every peak season from Dublarchar and other coastal belts, sources said.

The inaccessible Meheralir Char along the Bay of Bengal serves as a concentration camp for the ill-fated boys who have hardly any scope to escape from what could be compared to slavery.

Similar is the situation in Alorkol, Narkelbariar Char, Shelarchar and Chaprakhalir Char near the Sundarbans where dried fish business is thriving on labour exploitation from minor boys.

"It is quite impossible to know what is going on in the fishermen's colonies in the name of dry fish (shutki)

ousmess in the coastal belts, said Babu Swapan Guho, executive chief of NGO Rupantar.

The director of another NGO Prodipon, Sajjadur Rahim said a project has been taken up to stop forced child labour in the fishermen's colonies of coastal belts and create awareness among parents of minor boys about its adverse effect.

"To deal with the problem of forced child labour, we have planned different programmes including Social Watch Group at all coastal belts," he said.

Concerted efforts by humanitarian, government and non-government organisations are needed to resolve the problem.