Govt, NGOs must join hands to eradicate child labour

Speakers at a seminar yesterday stressed for coordination and close working relation between government and non-government organisations to eliminate child labour.

Although the government formed divisional councils for children's welfare, those are yet to be fully functional, they said, stressing the need for regular coordination meetings between government and non-government stakeholders.

In observance of World Day Against Child Labour, Alliance against Child Labour, a platform of NGOs including Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID) and Shapla Neer, arranged the seminar at the capital's The Daily Star Centre.

Atiqua Binte Baqui, advocacy officer of the Japanese NGO Shapla Neer, said although children are often abused and tortured while working as domestic help it is still not mentioned as a hazardous job in the child labour policy.

Scrutinising 25 incidents of violence against domestic help occurring between December last year and May this year, Atiqua said incidents of mental violence were found in all the cases while domestic helps were tortured physically in 89 percent cases.

She said the incident of sexual harassment took place in 26 percent cases while the percentage of filing case against the torturers was only 22.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the number of child labourers was 17 lakh in 2013. Of them, 12 lakh were engaged in hazardous jobs.

Yukiko Fujisaki, country director of Shapla Neer, said alongside helping children involved in hazardous jobs, it is also required to work for the welfare of the domestic helps.

Helal Uddin Ahmed, divisional commissioner of Dhaka, said they will form a divisional committee of child labour welfare council and take initiatives to eliminate child labour. Khandakar Jahurul Alam, executive director of CSID, moderated the seminar where Dr Enamul Huq, Syeda Munira Sultana of ILO and Augustine Suvash Purification, project manager of World Vision, also spoke.