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10 Int'l J. Child. Rts. 233 (2002)
Eradication of Hazardous Child Labour in Bangladesh: The Need for an Integrated Strategy

handle is hein.journals/intjchrb10 and id is 243 raw text is: LA The International Journal of Children's Rights 10: 233-268, 2002. 233 F © 2002 Kluwer Law International. Printed in the Netherlands. Eradication of hazardous child labour in Bangladesh: The need for an integrated strategy * MUHAMMAD MASUM Jahangirnagar University Savar Dhaka, Bangladesh 1. Introduction Child labour is one of the severest forms of child exploitation and child abuse in the world today. Although Bangladesh with her current population of 130 million accounts for about 2% of the world population, it is the home of 6.9 million working children that accounts for about 6% of the global child labour population numbering around 120 million. Early involvement of children in work often causes serious health hazards, and has signifi- cant development consequences. Working children, having no opportunity to develop themselves through acquisition of necessary education and skills, are doomed to a future that is characterized by low productivity and low income for themselves, their families and the economy in general, contrib- uting to the creation of a new generation of child workers, and the vicious circle thus continues. In an increasingly knowledge based competitive global economy, just to survive, for any developing nation like Bangladesh, there hardly exists any other option but to break away from this vicious circle. Given the enormity of the problem, it may, however, be wise first to target the worst forms of child labour i.e., removing the children from hazardous jobs. The objective of this paper is to analyze the causes of child labour, particularly in hazardous activities, with a view to suggesting measures to eradicate the same. Child labour situation of the country i.e., the macro picture, and characteristic features have been presented in Section 2. Section 3 first develops a conceptual framework, and on the basis of that analyzes the causes and trends of child labour in Bangladesh. Section 4 presents two case studies, one on Bidi, and another on Matches, both of which being hazardous sectors employing considerable child labour. The concluding section presents * A paper prepared for presentation at a seminar on Hazardous Child Labour organized by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka, May 7-8, 2002. The paper draws substantially from a Research Report titled Strengthening the Role of International Labour Standards Relating to Child Labour in Bangladesh prepared by the author under the auspices of ADB-ILO RETA Project, March, 2002.

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