Eliminating child labour

A child employed is a life destroyed. We need to ensure that the lives of so many children in our country are not destroyed

It is heartening to note that the Minister for Labour and Employment Md Mujibul Haque said recently that the government is determined to stop all forms of child labour by 2025 and hazardous child labour by 2021. 
The question of child labour in the country has been debated again and again. But there is really no debate about it; children should be at school and other means need to be found to help families who depend on their earnings to survive to manage. We simply cannot justify the fact that millions of children in the country are out of school, out of which most are part of the labour force.
Children must be protected from a number of heinous practices, including forced labour, recruitment in armed clashes, prostitution, drug-trafficking and hazardous jobs. Unfortunately work hours are not logged in most of the informal sector, which is where many adolescents are employed. Until all working children are registered with labour or child welfare departments, there is little chance of concrete enforcement of child protection laws.
The grim reality is that children are forced into the job market by impoverished parents. A complete ban on child labour would be ideal, but there is little chance of ending child labour without improving the quality of state schools and the larger health of the economy. Punishments for anyone who employs a child are still limited. Law alone is not enough. It will need to be complemented with other initiatives. A child rights commission could be an important precedent to set for the protection of the rights of children. The  government has shown initiative in fighting the plague of child labour, but apparently it has done so with limited conviction. 
A child employed is a life destroyed. We need to ensure that the lives of so many children in our country are not destroyed. Too many children are denied opportunity because they must go out to work. There have also been findings that the poor state of public sector schools and the refusal of children to attend them results in parents instead sending them out to work in the hope that they will learn a trade. This cycle of evil needs to be addressed collectively and everything possible done to protect children, a large number of whom are employed in hazardous professions despite the fact that Bangladesh has signed international conventions against such practices.

Eliminating child labour

A child employed is a life destroyed. We need to ensure that the lives of so many children in our country are not destroyed

It is heartening to note that the Minister for Labour and Employment Md Mujibul Haque said recently that the government is determined to stop all forms of child labour by 2025 and hazardous child labour by 2021. The question of child labour in the country has been debated again and again. But there is really no debate about it; children should be at school and other means need to be found to help families who depend on their earnings to survive to manage. We simply cannot justify the fact that millions of children in the country are out of school, out of which most are part of the labour force. Children must be protected from a number of heinous practices, including forced labour, recruitment in armed clashes, prostitution, drug-trafficking and hazardous jobs. Unfortunately work hours are not logged in most of the informal sector, which is where many adolescents are employed. Until all working children are registered with labour or child welfare departments, there is little chance of concrete enforcement of child protection laws. The grim reality is that children are forced into the job market by impoverished parents. A complete ban on child labour would be ideal, but there is little chance of ending child labour without improving the quality of state schools and the larger health of the economy. Punishments for anyone who employs a child are still limited. Law alone is not enough. It will need to be complemented with other initiatives. A child rights commission could be an important precedent to set for the protection of the rights of children. The government has shown initiative in fighting the plague of child labour, but apparently it has done so with limited conviction. A child employed is a life destroyed. We need to ensure that the lives of so many children in our country are not destroyed. Too many children are denied opportunity because they must go out to work. There have also been findings that the poor state of public sector schools and the refusal of children to attend them results in parents instead sending them out to work in the hope that they will learn a trade. This cycle of evil needs to be addressed collectively and everything possible done to protect children, a large number of whom are employed in hazardous professions despite the fact that Bangladesh has signed international conventions against such practices.