Noman Mosharef :
The child labour has increased in the country during the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic as the income of the people have decreased.
Moreover, the numbers of the poor people have enlarged during the pandemic making more children to join or bound to join at works.
Experts said, the recent Hashem Food incident has proved that the child labour has increased in
the country as a significant number of workers of the factory were children, which are the bad impact of Covid-19. They said the government’s initiative to reduce child labour by 2025 is going to have failed unless strict measures are taken.
Rabiul, a child labour was forced to join work for helping the family as his father lost his job during the pandemic. He spends a full day in a repair workshop without any rest and lifting heavy vehicles parts.
The eight grades Rabiul has felt in life struggle circle despite his unwillingness.
Rabiul said five members of their family were dependent on his father’s income. He was a day labour. But during Covid-19 he lost his work, putting the whole family in an uncertain future. Then I decided to join the work.
When asked how you feel in work, Rabiul’s face became pale and said, “I don’t like to work. I want to continue my studies. But the reality is if I don’t work, my family will live without food.”
Child Rabiul is one of the representative of lots of children/ teenagers who lost their “romping childhood” joining the works.
A Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey, which was conducted several years ago, showed that there was 3.5- million-child labour in the country. This number has increased multiple times during the pandemic, experts opined.
Tony Michel, Advocacy and Communication Officer of World Vision Bangladesh said 2.8 billion people are living under lower poverty line. This people became bound to send their children to work either forcefully or unwillingly. As a result, there is no chance to reduce of child labour.
Different types of projects are going on steps by steps in the country for the last two decades. In 2018, the government decided to spend around Tk 285 crore for the implementation of the fourth phase of these projects. However, the effectiveness of the projects have been questioned as a large number of child workers were killed in the recent Hashem factory fire.
Dr. Asif Mohammad Shahan, Associate Professor of Department of Development studies, University of Dhaka said the dependency of the politicians to the business community is making them to show daringness and disrespect to the country’s law and order. As a result, they can easily recruit a child as a labour without any accountability.
