State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque said the government is determined to stop all forms of child labour by 2025 and hazardous child labour by 2021. "We are confident enough to stop all forms of hazardous child labour by 2021 and all forms of child labour by 2025 as the government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been relentlessly working on it," he said while addressing a roundtable as the chief guest yesterday. The discussion titled "Implementation of Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2015: Way Forward" was held at the Daily Star auditorium yesterday morning.
Stressing the need for changing mindset towards domestic help and child labour, he said, "Law and policy cannot alone protect rights of domestic helps and eliminate child labour from the society." Haque called for waging a massive social movement with participation of all the stake holders' including civil society men, media, cultural activists, non-government organizations (NGOs) and others to put an end to the menace.
"We are playing a role of double standard over the issues of child labour and domestic helps as many of us are publicly advocating against the social menace and doing completely reverse in home," he also said. While presenting the keynote paper, NGO Manusher Jonno Foundation programme coordinator Abdulla Al Mamun said Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has conducted a nationwide survey that shows around 1.7 million children are engaged as child labour and 1.28 million of them are engaged in hazardous one.