Eradicating child labour

AROUND 5.0 million children, aged between five and 14 years work as labourers in our country. We need to address this issue on an urgent basis as many promising lives are being wasted in the process. Many of these boys and girls could have been worthwhile products of our country if they had minimum education and care. If we look around us, we see hundreds of these children toiling at odd and laborious jobs unbecoming of their age and ability. Even in Dhaka city we see children working as mechanics in motor workshops and as helpers of motorised vehicles.  Their families are too poor to afford education for them and the meagre income they earn helps their families to survive. In the same manner girls of similar age group end up as domestic aids as their parents cannot send them to schools.

These unfortunate children work hard to make sure that they get a meal at the end of the day and have a roof over their heads. The United Nations are working to eradicate the child labour in the developing countries like Bangladesh. Education is a basic right of a citizen and unfortunately we have failed to ensure it for our children.  We cannot expect to achieve our desired development goals keeping these children deprived of their right to education and allowing them to make both ends meet in an honourable manner. Child labour must be eradicated without any further delay.

Tanveer Islam (Pavel)                                                                                                                                 

Mirpur, Dhaka