Progress moderate in ending child labour

Bangladesh made moderate advancements last year in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, according to a report of the US Department of Labor published on Wednesday.

In early 2022, the government ratified International Labour Organization's (ILO) C138 -Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) that deals with minimum age for admission to employment and P029 - Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, it said.

The government also removed 5,088 children in vulnerable situations from 23 districts through inspections.

However, children in Bangladesh are subjected to the worst forms of child labour, including commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour in drying of fish and the production of bricks.

Children also perform dangerous tasks in the production of garments and leather goods. Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 does not apply to the informal sector in which most child labour in Bangladesh occurs.

In addition, penalties for child labour violations can only be imposed after a lengthy legal process and, when courts do impose them, the fines are too low to deter child labour law violations.

Moreover, the government did not publicly release information on its criminal law enforcement efforts related to child labour.

Child labour is available in the bidi (the hand rolled cigarettes), bricks, dried fish, footwear, furniture (steel), garments, glass, leather, matches, poultry, salt, shrimp, soap, textiles and jute (textiles) sectors, the report also said.

Of these, garments and dried fish sectors also have forced labour, it said.

However, Md Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said there was no scope for child and forced labour in the garment sector.

Child labour has been eliminated from the sector in 2004 in consultation with the ILO, he said.

"Moreover, we inspect every member factory of the BGMEA to check child labour. We also fine member factories if child labour is found in any factory," Azim told The Daily Star over the phone.

If there any child labour or forced labour is found in subcontracting factories, the BGMEA has little to do as the association does not have any control on the non-member factories, Azim also said.

Echoing him, Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, said there was no scope for child labour in the export-oriented garment and textile factories.

All of the suppliers are verified by the international retailers and brands, he reasoned.

"I strongly protest the report as our export-oriented factories are regularly inspected by our international retailers and brands to check for child labour and forced labour," Khokon told The Daily Star.

Child labour may be found in any non-complaint factory which makes product for local markets, he said.

Any factory nominated by international retailers and brands cannot use child labour or forced labour, he also added.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics estimated that there were 1.28 million children working in hazardous sectors before the Covid-19 pandemic, with 260,000 children working in the government's officially listed hazardous sectors.

Economic hardships and school closures brought on by the pandemic have forced many school-age children to take on temporary jobs in factories, including in the garment and food processing sectors, said the US Department of Labor.