Accurate data, info needed to remove child labour from agriculture

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FE Report
Speakers at a seminar on Child Labour in Agriculture have underscored the need for developing an accurate system of data and information with a view to eliminating hazardous form of child labour from the agriculture sector.
The system will help bring the child labour into the mainstream of life and thus help ensure a better future for them.
The seminar, marking the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL), was jointly organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Manpower Export Ashfaque Hamid attended the seminar as the chief guest while additional secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Syed Naquib Muslim chaired the session at a city hotel Tuesday..
ILO country director Gopal Bhattacharya, FAO representative Ad Spijkers, CK Hyder from Bangladesh Employers' Federation (BEF) and Abdul Kader Howlader from the National Coordinating Committee on Workers Education also spoke on the occasion.
Gopal Bhattacharya said according to the National Child Labour Survey 2002-03, the number of economically active children (working children), aged between 5-17 years is 7.4 million (74 lakh) and 65 per cent of the rural working children are engaged in agriculture.