24.27 UNICEF Bangladesh stated on its website, accessed 10 July 2013:
‗Poverty causes families to send children to work, often in hazardous and low-wage jobs, such as brick-chipping, construction and waste-picking. Children are paid less than adults, with many working up to twelve hours a day. Full-time work frequently prevents children from attending school, contributing to drop-out rates.
‗According to the Labour Law of Bangladesh 2006, the minimum legal age for employment is 14. However, as 93 per cent of child labourers work in the informal
429 US State Department, 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh, 19 April 2013 (Section 6) http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/sca/204395.htm Accessed 23 May 2013
430 Child Rights Governance Assembly (CRGA), ‗UPR Report: Situation of Child Rights in Bangladesh‘ 2012 (14- 15) http://www.askbd.org/web/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01/Child%20Rights%20Universal%20Periodic%20Review%202013.pdf Accessed 24 June 2013
431 Ibid
sector – in small factories and workshops, on the street, in home-based businesses and domestic employment – the enforcement of labour laws is virtually impossible.
‗Long hours, low or no wages, poor food, isolation and hazards in the working
environment can severely affect children‘s physical and mental health. Child labourers are also vulnerable to other abuses such as racial discrimination, mistreatment and sexual abuse. Some work, such as domestic labour, is commonly regarded as an acceptable employment option for children, even though it too poses considerable risks.432
24.28 The USSD 2012 report observed:
‗By law every child must attend school through the age of 10, but there was no effective legal mechanism to enforce this provision, and child labor was widespread. The law regulates child employment, depending on the type of work and the child‘s age. The minimum age for work is 14, and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18. The law allows for certain exceptions, permitting children who are 12 or 13 to perform restricted forms of light work. The law specifies penalties for child labor violations, typically
nominal fines of less than 5,000 taka (US $62).
‗The ILO estimated that 3.7 million children worked and that 1.3 million worked in hazardous sectors.
‗The Ministry of Labor‘s enforcement mechanisms were insufficient for the large, urban informal sector, and there was little enforcement of child labor laws outside the export garment and shrimp-processing sectors. Agriculture and other informal sectors that had no government oversight employed large numbers of children.
‗The Child Labor Unit in the Ministry of Labor and Employment monitored, coordinated, and supervised child labor programs. In 2011 the Child Labor Unit developed a Child Labor Monitoring Information System to manage child labor-related data collected by different ministries. The government also developed a national program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2015. The program includes monitoring workplaces and education for children and their families.‘433
24.29 The US Department of Labor, ‗2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor – Bangladesh‘, published in September 2012, stated:
‗Children in Bangladesh are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, primarily in dangerous activities in agriculture and domestic service ... Children working in
agriculture perform a variety of tasks and may be exposed to risks such as dangerous machinery and tools, harmful pesticides and heavy loads ... Children, mostly girls, work as domestic servants in private households in Bangladesh. Some child domestics work in exploitative conditions and are vulnerable to abuse, including sexual abuse ...
Children engage in dangerous work that includes welding, carpentry, rickshaw pulling and automobile repair ... Children work in poultry farming and in drying fish, which exposes them to harmful chemicals, dangerous machines that can cut off their fingers, and long hours of work in the hot sun ... Children are also involved in the production of salt, soap, matches, bricks, cigarettes, footwear, steel furniture, glass, jute, leather and
432 UNICEF Bangladesh, ‗Child labour‘, undated http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/children_4863.htm Accessed 9 July 2013
433 US State Department, 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh, 19 April 2013 (Section 7) http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/sca/204395.htm Accessed 23 May 2013
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 31 July 2013. 145
textiles ...While producing these goods, often in small workshops or homes, they face dangers that may include working with hazardous chemicals and sharp objects in cramped conditions with low lighting for long hours. Children collect and process
shrimp, which has led to back injuries, repetitive strain, muscle inflammation, diarrhoea and infections ... Children also work dismantling large ships into smaller pieces.
Children lack the physical strength necessary for ship breaking and risk exposure to hazardous chemicals.
‗Children are also found working on the streets, garbage picking, vending, begging and portering ... They may face multiple dangers including severe weather, vehicle
accidents and criminal elements. Children working in hotels and restaurants face long working hours and potential abuse ... Boys and girls, often those living on the streets, are exploited in illicit activities, including smuggling and trading arms and drugs.‘434 24.30 The ‗2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor – Bangladesh‘ report noted:
‗The Labor Code prohibits parents or guardians from pledging their children‘s work in exchange for a payment or benefit and the Penal Code prohibits forced labor...Those who violate the law are subject to penalties, which include imprisonment.
‗In February 2012, the [Bangladesh] Parliament approved a new national anti-trafficking law, the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act 2012, which expands the definition of trafficking to include labor trafficking, covers men and boys and makes trafficking a capital offense with a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
‗UNICEF continued to collaborate closely with the Government in implementing the second phase of a project that establishes education centers to provide non-formal education and livelihood skills to more than 350,000 working children and adolescents.‘
435
24.31 The US Department of Labor report of September 2009 quoted an ILO survey as estimating that there were over 421,000 children, mostly girls, working as domestic servants in private households.436 In 2011, the Supreme Court ordered the Welfare Council to monitor the conditions of child domestic workers and to ensure that no child under age 12 is employed as a domestic worker.437
24.32 According to the ASK CRGA 2012 report:
‗[T]he Ministry of Labour and Employment has adopted the National Child Labour Elimination Policy, 2010 that provides a framework to eliminate all forms of child labour by 2015 ... It aims withdrawing children from hazardous jobs; improving income
generating opportunities for parents so they are not so reliant on their children‘s income;
offering incentives for working children to attend school; enacting laws and improving law enforcement to eliminate child labour ... The government has taken up some
434 United States Department of Labor, 2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Bangladesh, 26 September 2012 http://www.refworld.org/docid/5065940913.html Accessed 11 July 2013
435 United States Department of Labor, 2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Bangladesh, 26 September 2012 http://www.refworld.org/docid/5065940913.html Accessed 11 July 2013
436 US Department of Labor, 2008 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Bangladesh, 10 September 2009 http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-
bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=publisher&docid=4aba3ef058&skip=0&publisher=USDOL&
querysi=bangladesh&searchin=title&display=50&sort=date Accessed 11 July 2013
437 US Department of Labor, 2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Bangladesh, 26 September 2012 http://www.refworld.org/docid/5065940913.html Accessed 11 July 2013
projects to withdraw 55,000 child labourers from the hazardous working condition, and bring them back to normal life.
‗However, concern is that informal child labour sectors are totally outside the ambit of existing laws.‘438
See Section 24: Children – documentation regarding the difficulties in maintaining a reliable Birth registration system.