A poem of Tears

Children have the right to be children: "to be loved, cherished, educated, nourished, clothed and fostered as children when they are children" .

But, Millions of children’s rights have been stolen. They are engaged in labour Market.

Jainal works in silver cooking pot factory. He is 11 years old. His work starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. For his work he

gets 700 taka (10 USD) for a month.

A boy making metal components at a factory. Dhaka, Bangladesh

7-year-old Jasmine collects rubbish from a steaming rubbish heap on a cold winter morning. She earns money to support her family by scavenging for

items on the Kajla rubbish dump.

Children at a brick factory in Fatullah. For each 1,000 bricks they carry, they earn 40-50 taka per day.

Hands of 8-year-old Munna while working in a rickshaw parts making factory. He works 10 hours a day and gets

only 900 taka for a month. Dhaka. Bangladesh.

Ten-year-old Shaifur working in a door lock factory in Old Dhaka. Unlike his colleague, Shaifur works without a mask.

Children are compelled to work for long working hours with inadequate or no rest period. Moreover, they are paid with minimum wages and enjoy no job security. Many people prefer to employ young boys to

maximize services for those minimum wages.

• What dream is waiting for him?

• Who will take responsibility of him?

• He worked in sheep-breaking industry.

Working girls are also facing some socio – psycho -physiological difficulties like sexual harassment.

Child labour in Bangladesh The total working child

population between 5 - 17 years old is estimated at 7.9

million.

The proportion of boy and girl child workers, in the age group of 5-17 years, is 73.5 per cent

and 26.5 per cent, respectively;

As many as 93.3 per cent of all working children in the age group of 5-17 years operate in the informal sector. Agriculture engages

4.5 million (56.4%), while the services sector engages 2 million (25.9%), and industry, 1.4 million (17.7%).

Note - This figure does not include economically active children who are unemployed.

Source: ILO, 26 October 2009

Globally, at least 10 million children are trapped in domestic labor jobs where they work long hours for little pay and often face abuses.

Total number of child domestic workers in Bangladesh is not available. Some NGOs estimate that there are approximately two million children

engaged in domestic work in Bangladesh.

The impact on a childCrucially, children working for long hours are missing out on the vital

opportunity that education provides to equip themselves with the knowledge, life skills and confidence to participate fully in the economic

and social development of their communities and to improve their own and family lives.

In the worst cases, they may be doing work that is physically, emotionally and/or psychologically dangerous, putting their young bodies and minds

under terrible strain that can lead to permanent damage.

Why children workChildren work primarily because the environment they live in has failed to protect them from exploitation. A large number of factors interact to

influence whether or not children will be working.

These include: Persistent poverty Economic shocks Social shocks Natural

Shocks Inadequate education The demand for child labour

We shall overcome some day