Forced to work, denied a future: The battle against child labour in Bangladesh

Despite prevailing belief in rural communities that child labour can be financially beneficial, the conditions in which children are forced to work are often cruel, robbing them of their childhood. Photo: TBS

Child labour continues to be one of the most alarming social and economic challenges in Bangladesh, depriving millions of children of education, healthcare and proper upbringing. Despite government and international efforts, such as from the International Labour Organization (ILO), child labour is prevalent in a range of industries, including shipbuilding yards, garment factories and agriculture.

The ILO has been a key player in establishing global labour standards and promoting the elimination of child labour. Bangladesh ratified the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), for instance, creating an unparalleled effort against child exploitation and hastening the reduction of child workers globally from 215 million to 168 million between 2008 and 2012. In the same way, the acknowledgment that domestic workers need to be treated as workers and not like poorly compensated "maids" led to the approval of the Children as Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). 

In short, child labour in Bangladesh is more than just a legal issue; it is also a source of income for many households. For this reason, numerous children still work in dangerous environments, despite international attempts to stop it. They are forced to work in a variety of industries, where they are vulnerable to hidden types of power and coercion. 

In Bangladesh, the Children Act 2013 and the Labour Rules 2015 both address concerns regarding child labour along with the weaknesses of national policies and action plans for the protection of children. Wealthy countries that profit from child exploitation have a political and economic stake in preserving the status quo, which keeps entire communities and families in abject poverty.  

In addition, the legal bindings arise when the cultural perspectives increase the issue as well. Child labour is viewed as necessary for family survival in several rural cultures. Organisations take advantage of this economic vulnerability, while parents see it as an approach to improving household income. Since the marginal population still believes in the long-term financial potential for their children, they are unaware of the term "illegal work" and child labour.

Therefore, influencing cultural attitudes takes more than just legal reforms. Nonetheless, the majority of young people in today's generation are exploited in low-wage industries including manufacturing, construction, domestic work, agriculture, and fishing, especially in lower distribution networks.

The Labour Act, 2006 of Bangladesh establishes a minimum age for employment of 14 years, enabling adolescents aged 14 to 18 to work under specific restrictions, such as restricted working hours (a maximum of seven hours per day) and non-hazardous jobs. Sections 39–42 of the Act ban dangerous labour for persons under the age of 18, including areas such as tanneries, shipbreaking and the dried fish business. 

The Labour Rules, 2015, unify and revise legislation governing employment and labour relations in Bangladesh, with a focus on child labour. They strongly ban work for children under the age of 14. The Act distinguishes between minors (under 14) and teenagers (14-18). 

International labour law has developed as a result of a larger social movement that is connected to the historical development of requirements prohibiting child labour and forced labour. Economists saw this "liberation" as establishing a base for more successful commercial connections, in addition to being a humanitarian concern.

Changing the core standardised attitudes that support child labour's continuation despite nearly universal legal prevention is a key question in the fight against it. Child labour was formerly viewed as either "normal" social behavior or as the right of the government to use child labour in specific industries. 

Institutions, including organisations and their governing bodies, formal regulations and implicit social standards have an impact on how individuals act. The "rules of the game" that are intended to govern organisations and their members' conduct are the normative framework of the ILO and the laws that interpret it into state law. These official regulations frequently coexist with less formal, more slowly evolving societal norms.

On the other hand, there are certain legal differences concerning the age at which children can work because of the Children Act, 2013, which attempts to improve children's rights and protection in Bangladesh by defining a child as anybody under the age of 18. The Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012, forbids the exploitation and forced labour of minors and specifies consequences for those who violate the law. 

If we look closer at the example from Pakistan, the ILO made the Pakistan Federal Shariat Court's members more aware of difficulties surrounding bonded labour even if it is connected to child labour, which resulted in a 2005 verdict that invalidated bonded labour as "repugnant to injunctions of the Holy Quran and Sunnah." The court validated its decision by citing ILO Convention No. 29 and Islamic precepts. 

Comparably, the Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act, 2000, prioritises safeguarding children from sexual exploitation and other types of abuse by including measures against trafficking and exploitation. 

Government surveys that track child labour concerns, such as the National Child Labour Survey, 2022, show that nearly 1.7 million children are still working as minors, with 1.1 million of them in hazardous situations; where is the legal application that has been filed in Bangladesh?

Although Bangladesh has achieved progress, millions of children continue to live in a cruel cycle of exploitation. We cannot just rely on international treaties and negligence-enforced regulations to break the cycle of violence. 

It is time for immediate action from the present and upcoming generations, as well as the government and beyond. Always committing to policies, civic society should focus on preventing child labour. To ensure that every child has the right to a childhood free of work, these changes in society are necessary.  

Sketch: TBS

Tanjina Akter Riya is a Research Fellow at the Global Institute of Law, Oxford, England.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.