BANGLADESH lagging far behind in achieving the goal of eliminating child labour by 2025 is worrying. A report on the global status of child labour with updated data on Bangladesh, published on the occasion of World Day against Child Labour and International Day of Play, says that while there has been significant progress in reducing child labour in hazardous work, the prevalence of child labour is still significant. The broader child labour rate, which was 4.3 in 2013, remained relatively stable at 4.4 per cent in 2022, indicating that Bangladesh is not on track to meet its commitment to eliminating child labour. The National Child Labour Survey 2022 reported that Bangladesh had 3.54 million working children, largely engaged in the informal sector. The International Labour Organisation and the UN Children鈥檚 Fund often reported on how children were working in exploitative conditions, especially in households or the industrial sector. Workplace death and injury among child labourers is also commonplace. The situation demands of the government and other stakeholders a renewed policy commitment to protecting children鈥檚 rights.
There are policies and the labour law that promise to protect child rights, but in reality, they have fallen short. The Child Act 2013 makes the exploitation of children an offence, punishable with imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to Tk 50,000 or both. 聽Since the law is not clear on what counts as exploitation, children continue to work in unsafe situations. The Labour Act 2006 allows children aged 12鈥�14 years to be involved in light work if that does not affect their education and development. The definition of light work and the conditions of employment are, however, not specified. Similarly, household service work is not listed as hazardous for children in the law although the abuse of child workers in household services is regularly reported. The inadequate oversight and evaluation of the National Child Labour Elimination Policy have drawn criticism. The poor implementation, oversight and evaluation of the policy have been attributed by a large degree to lack of resources, enforcement and low stakeholder awareness. Children working in the informal sector, meanwhile, remain outside the purview of any legal framework or public oversight system.
The government should, first and foremost, address the ambiguity and inadequacy in the laws and policies to eliminate child labour. It should bring informal labour under the purview of the labour law with special provisions for monitoring child labour. The social safety net programmes should be designed in view of the economic burden of working-class children. The government should also expedite the process of establishing an independent national child rights commission to oversee the officials and agencies responsible for protecting child rights and ensure that they properly discharge their duties.
