Stop to employing children as domestic helps urged

Children hold posters urging to say no to employment of their peers as domestic helps at a human chain formed before the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital yesterday. The committee to observe World Day Against Child Labour organised the programme. Photo: Star

Hundreds of disadvantaged children at a programme in the capital yesterday urged society to stop employing children as domestic helps.
Meanwhile, a Chittagong seminar, “Situation Analysis of the Working Children in Transport Sector (Tempo) in Chittagong”, organised by Ghasful, an NGO, informed that nearly 700 children were at risk for working as human hauler helpers in the city.
Non-government organisations (NGO) Sohay, Vafusd, Aparajeyo Bangladesh and Community Participation and Development, supported by Manusher Jonno Foundation, organised the capital's programme in the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh.
The programme marked World Day Against Child Labour, themed “No to Child Labour in Domestic Work” this year by the labour and employment ministry.
“Employing children as domestic helps often inhibits them from getting better chances in life,” said Additional Secretary to the NGO Affairs Bureau Mohammad Nurun Nabi Talukder.
The financially insolvent constitute the population's 31 percent and their condition cannot be improved without children's development, he said.
“It is inevitable that many children born in deprived conditions will become engaged in child labour. However, they should be kept out of hazardous works,” said Manusher Jonno Foundation Executive Director Shaheen Anam.
Many of the children present yesterday were engaged in underage, often hazardous, labour, but are now enrolled in schools or in capacity building and vocational training programmes with the help of the four NGOs.
They took part in different events at yesterday's programme and demanded that underage domestic workers be given the same opportunities they were provided.