Joint participation must to eliminate child labour

The government and development partners have to work together to help the country’s child labourers skilled with vocational training and finally eliminate child labour through the implementation of a proper action plan.

Experts made the observation at a views-exchange meeting on Thursday, jointly organised by Bangladesh Labour Foundation (BLF), and Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) at BLF conference room on Sonargaon Road in the capital.

The meeting, organised on elimination of child labour from local garment factories at Keranigonj in Dhaka, was attended by DIFE officials, BLF members and journalists.

BLF Chairman Abdus Salam Khan said, “The government and stakeholders have to focus on proper action plan for the elimination of child labour. The plan has to ensure technical training for the child labourers and allocation from safety net measures, so that the child gets nutritious food as well as work for the rehabilitation.”

“Their rights have to be ensured moderately, otherwise there is a huge possibility that the child may face further risk as they work to earn bread and butter for the family members,” he added.

BLF Secretary General ZM Kamrul Anam said, “We have approached UNICEF and ILO to allocate fund and work with the government in order to eliminate child labour and rehabilitate them in a proper way.”

In the keynote paper presented at the meeting, BLF showed that there are more than 20,000 child labourers – aged between 5 to 14 years – in the local garment factories in Keranigonj and they are working without minimum rights.

DIFE representatives said that the government is working on the matter, but there is no project and fund for the rehabilitation of the child labourers of the area.

They said the DIFE and BLF are now focusing on building awareness against the child rights violation, and new recruitment of the child labourers.