Staff Reporter :Speakers at a view exchange programme have stressed the need for ensuring basic rights for the working children across the country.They said, more than 0.4 million children are now engaged in household works where they have to work for more than 15 hours a day and enjoy negligible facilities and nominal wages.Besides, they said, about 1.2 million street children and slum dwelling ones are also engaged in different risky jobs in the country.These children often face inconsistency in payment along with physical harassment and sexual cruelty by their employers and seniors, they informed.Action for Social Development (ASD), a non-government organization (NGO), arranged the programme at Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) auditorium in the city on Monday.Secretary for the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Nasima Akter NDC attended the programme as the chief guest where secretary of ICT Division under the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Shyam Sunder Sikder and director of Shishu Academy Mosarraf Hossain were the special guests.Executive Director of ASD Jamil H Chowdhury presided over the programme.”The government should take immediate steps to bring all these children under a safety net programme. The government should ensure food, housing and educational facility for these children for the greater interest of the nation,” ASD deputy director Mozammel Haque said.”It is possible to redirect these children from work to education only by ensuring the basic needs,” he said.Jamil H Chowdhury, in his speech, urged the concerned authorities to include home work profession in the risky job list of the government. “The government has made a list of 38 professions as risky where home workers are ignored but majority of the children working at home face different types of harassment every now and then,” he said.However, Shyam Sunder Sikder ensured all types of support from his ministry to provide computer-based education to all the working children.”The government is very much eager to support the underprivileged children. So, make some specific proposals so that these children can be benefited,” he said.Nasima Akter said, her ministry has taken different types of safety net programme for the underprivileged children like common education along with food and other necessaries.”The government has made education free for all along with providing food and other necessaries. If needed, more steps would be taken to ensure education for all,” she said.She said, “I will take steps to list home work as a risky job for the minors along with other steps to bring all the children across the country under safety net programme.”
