CHILD LABOUR

Bangladesh is one of the protest countries of the world. Most people here live below poverty line. They cannot afford their basic necessities properly. Hear the average family size is big. As many families have low income or less earners than eating mouths, they engage their children in various earning activities to supplement the family income. Thus child labour is on the increase. In fact, child labour has become a serious socio-economic problem of Bangladesh. It is a curse of our society, a satire to our development programs.

Labour is a matter of dignity. But child labour is considered a matter of disgrace for a nation, because children are the future of a nation. If childhood is wasted in manual labour, and in shouldering the family need, if the children are deprived of their right to education and other privileges, they will not be able to lend the nation future. In effect they become a long-standing burden on the nation.

There are certain causes of child labour. Poverty is the root cause. As poor people can hardly maintain their family and educate their children, the education of the children is stopped at an early age and they are forced to do various manual labour to support their family. Low pay is another cause of child lobour. Often employers offer low pay for certain jobs which the grown ups do not do.

Child labour is a reality of modern urban and industrial society. Children are like flowers. At this age they are to go to school and there will be books and pens in their hands. But the though and cruel reality force many children to leave school or not to go to school at all. Instend they take up hammer, busket, and handles of rickshaw or van in their hands, remain unfed, hakf-clad, and bare-footed. Thud their sad and heart-rending condition highlight only the distressed condition of the nation.

Children labour destroys the sweet period of childhood and face the children with the stark realities of life. Wherever children are employed either it is domestic work or factory work, either it is rickshaw pulling or working in a shop or hotel, they are abused, maltreated, paid low and derived of their due rights by their employer, children work for longer period, suffer various mistreatments, work in unhealthy and unfavourable condition, and what is sorrowful, they are not given due wages. Child labour is cheap labour. Many children do the work of the adults, and other do risky and dangerous work, but they do not get any sympathy or love from anybody.

Govt. and NGOs should work together to root out this evil from society. For this, poverty alleviation programme must be strengthened and widened. Govt’s social security network should also be extended. Strict laws should be enacted and enforced against employing children in manual work. Govt. must ensure that children do not drop out from school and get the right of education. The rich and able persons of society can also come forward in this regard.

Children’s work should never be desired in a society. Bangladesh is conforming to UNICEF’s “say yes to children” programme which includes 15 things for the children. We must try to maintain that and ensure peaceful, carefree and secured world for our children. Otherwise we will have to suffer in the long run caused from this social problem.