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Govt monitoring needed to prevent hazardous child labour

Speakers at roundtable opine

Staff Correspondent
Monitoring from the government should be enhanced to prevent hazardous child labour, speakers at a roundtable said yesterday.
Laying emphasis on creating awareness regarding child labour, they also said the poor parents should be given a monthly allowance so that they do not send their children to any hazardous job.
Prothom Alo organised the discussion on child labour, in association with International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Ministry of Labour and Employment, at the
capital's CA Bhaban.
The speakers also shed light on coordination among the stakeholders, including the government working on the child issue.
Speaking at the programme, Mujibul Haque, state minister for labour and employment, said, "There is law regarding child labour, but in most cases people do not know about it"
The government is implementing the law, but employers and parents need to be aware regarding the matter to stop child labour, he said.
He also said the government has undertaken different projects
throughout the years to prevent hazardous child labour in divisional, district and upazila levels.
When the budget will be passed on June 28, the ministry will sit along with the NGOs to chalk out plans on how to effectively spend money to prevent hazardous child labour, he said.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said, “Working children are vulnerable to torture and abuse. ”
Referring to SDG's target no. 8.7, she said a proper roadmap should be chalked out to stop child labour in the country by 2025.
"Coordination should be strengthened among the civil society, government and NGOs,” she suggested, requesting the labour ministry to take the lead in this regard.
Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association, said there are factories where children under 18 years of age are still working in hazardous jobs, and if they get injured during work, they do not get proper compensation.
So, monitoring from the government has to be enhanced, she opined, adding that parents should be discouraged through different awareness campaigns, to not let their children work in hazardous environments.
Razequzzaman Ratan, a central leader of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, said education and health are important to create human resources of a country, and therefore, proper education and health should be ensured for children.
He emphasised giving monthly allowance to poor parents, so that they do not have to send their children to work.
He said children involved in labour stand the risk of being drawn into crime when they grow up, since they face discrimination and violence in their early life.
Farooq Ahmed, secretary general of Bangladesh Employers' Federation, said there is no exact statistics on children working in different sectors.
Even the data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on child labour are outdated, with the latest data being from 2013, he alleged.
"Monitoring in the informal sector is weak," he claimed, adding that prevalence of child labour has decreased in the formal sector.
Pointing out poverty as a major reason behind child labour, he suggested making an alternative for the parents so that they do not have to send their children to hazardous work.
Praising different steps of the government on child issues, Tuomo Poutiainen, country director of ILO Bangladesh, said, "Effort has to come from all the sectors, to achieve the expected results quickly."
Anjir Liton, director of Bangladesh Shishu Academy; Jean Lieby, Chief of Child Protection at Unicef Bangladesh and Chandan Z Gomes, advocacy director, World Vision Bangladesh, also spoke at the discussion.