Govt urged to fix child age at 18
Sunday, 13 June 2010
The government has been urged to fix the age of children at 18, removing confusions over the definition of children, juveniles and adolescents aged between 14 and 19 years in official documents.
Child rights campaigners and donors' representatives made the appeal while speaking at a seminar organised to mark the World Day Against Child Labour in the city Saturday, reports BSS.
"The age of children should be harmonised and fixed at 18 years," Joint Director of the Labour Directorate Kabir Ahmed Chowdhury told the seminar.
Mr Ahmed said different documents have defined the age of children in various ways-ranging from 14 to 18 years-but the country now needs a harmonised age of children to take steps towards elimination of child labour.
Labour and Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain attending the function as the chief guest said an estimated 3.20 million children of poor background got engaged in 400 types of jobs in the country.
He said at least 1.30 million of the children are involved in the 43 to 67 worst forms of child labour.
He, however, said the government has taken some pragmatic steps to reduce the number of child labourers from both formal and informal sectors. The worst forms of child labour, he said, are likely to be eliminated by the year 2016.
NGO representatives attending the function urged the government to focus more on implementation of the newly enacted National Child Labour Elimination Policy 2010 and preparation of a concrete list of the worst forms of child labour in Bangladesh, home to 140 million people where children make up nearly 40 per cent of the total population.
Child rights campaigners and donors' representatives made the appeal while speaking at a seminar organised to mark the World Day Against Child Labour in the city Saturday, reports BSS.
"The age of children should be harmonised and fixed at 18 years," Joint Director of the Labour Directorate Kabir Ahmed Chowdhury told the seminar.
Mr Ahmed said different documents have defined the age of children in various ways-ranging from 14 to 18 years-but the country now needs a harmonised age of children to take steps towards elimination of child labour.
Labour and Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain attending the function as the chief guest said an estimated 3.20 million children of poor background got engaged in 400 types of jobs in the country.
He said at least 1.30 million of the children are involved in the 43 to 67 worst forms of child labour.
He, however, said the government has taken some pragmatic steps to reduce the number of child labourers from both formal and informal sectors. The worst forms of child labour, he said, are likely to be eliminated by the year 2016.
NGO representatives attending the function urged the government to focus more on implementation of the newly enacted National Child Labour Elimination Policy 2010 and preparation of a concrete list of the worst forms of child labour in Bangladesh, home to 140 million people where children make up nearly 40 per cent of the total population.