Tareen Rahman :The trend of using child labour in risky professions has been increasing alarmingly in the country despite different initiatives taken by the government to check it. According to experts, the number of child workers in risky jobs is about 80 lakh. This number is increasing day by day. Experts blame poverty for such disappointing situation.Abul Miah, son of a rickshaw puller, who lives in a city slum, is too little to go to school. But he goes to a chemical factory for earning livelihood. Every day, he does it and works from morning to night. The nature of job is both risky and industrious. But the little boy does not know the consequence of doing such risky job in a chemical factory.Sources have said that Bangladesh ranks second in respect of number of child workers. About 80 lakh children are involved with 300 different category of work.According to the existing labour law, anyone can take legal action against the employers who are engaging children to do 14 different categories of risky jobs. Though jobs are already banned, in practice, no functional steps have been taken to execute the sanction. On the other hand, the employers demand that by making children work, they are actually helping them earn bread and butter for their poor families. Experts say, the availability of child workers in the country is easy because of poverty. In such situation, public awareness must be raised to stop child labor, they opined.Former adviser to the caretaker government Rasheda K. Choudhury said, ‘Poverty and hardship give birth child labour in our country. Many times parents find no second option than sending their children outside to earn livelihood. The Ministry of children must be vigilant to stop it. But they do a little.’State Minister for Women and Children Affairs, Meher Afroz Chumki said, ‘ When the guardians secretly send their children to do risky jobs and when the employers secretly employ them, then it becomes difficult for the government to stop it.’She, however, claimed that 42 thousand children had already been rehabilitated under different projects.
