93pc of child labourers couldn’t find regular work due to Covid-19

Nearly 93 percent of child workers based in the capital have failed to find work on a regular basis during the pandemic, a survey has found.

Among the 194 child labourers surveyed, 71 said they could not find any work, while 109 children reported being unable to find regular work.

Meanwhile 49.5 percent had to switch to begging to earn a living, said the survey undertaken by Action for Social Development during the first week of July. Its findings were released yesterday.

A further 46 child workers contacted, outside of the original sample size, reported having to move back to the village having lost all scope for work.

Before the pandemic hit, some 21.6 of the respondents earned Tk 4,000 to 6,000, but since then, that number has decreased more than half, to stand at 9.8 per cent.

Around 32.6 percent of the children surveyed said they had not received any help from the government.

Only about half of the children in the sample were found to have access to masks. However, three-fourths reported washing their hands with soap and water after they come back home, and 20 percent said they wash themselves at the end of the day.

ASD's executive director Jamil H Chowdhury stated, "As more families descend into poverty, we will be seeing more children entering the labour market, or take up begging. They will also fall victim to underage marriage."

In addition, a lot of private or NGO initiatives that were in place to give these children an education have completely stopped, cutting them off from any form of schooling, he said.