Absence of hard data on working children, lack of awareness about the problem, virtually non-existent institutional mechanism to monitor the situation and inadequate provisions for protection against accidents, diseases and death hinder the fight against child labour in the agriculture sector, said Gopal Bhattacharya, director of ILO, Bangladesh.

ILO, FAO and labour & employment and agriculture ministries organised the seminar at a city hotel to mark the World Day against Child Labour.

This year the theme of the day is 'Harvest for the future: Agriculture without child labour'.

Globally over 132 million children aged between 5 and 14 years work on farms and plantations, sowing and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock worldwide. Agriculture is one of the three most hazardous works along with mining and construction.

According to the National Child Labour Survey 2002-03, the number of economically active children (working children) aged 5-17 years is 7.4 million and 65 percent of rural working children are in the agriculture sector.

Illiteracy and inter-generational poverty are major consequences of child labour in the agricultural sector, FAO Representative Ad Spijkers said and stressed the need to mainstream the child labour issue into the national agriculture development policy.

Ashfaque Hamid, secretary at the ministry of labour and employment, said the issue of child labour in the agriculture sector poses dilemma as this sector is fully dependent on family-based labour and the demand for food is increasing day by day.

He stressed the need to provide scholarship to working children and support to their parents in order to eliminate child labour.

He also said that the child labour policy is under consideration and the government is expected to finalise it soon.

CK Hyder, secretary general of Bangladesh Employers' Association, suggested creating employment opportunities in rural areas, developing agro-based industries and launching advocacy programmes in order to stop child labour.