State minister for labour and employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu Thursday said there is no plan to enact a Corporate Social Responsibility law to bring the corporate sector under legal bindings as this is a new concept.
He also said it is difficult to keep the child labourer out of work in the present socio-economic condition of the country, especially from the largest informal sector like agriculture.
"Some child rights workers have demanded a law on the CSR policy for children which at the moment I think would be something harsh for the companies to follow," said Mr Haque, adding the policy is a 'primary' step of toward enacting a law.
The minister's views came at a national seminar on the 'Draft National CSR Policy for Children' at a city hotel, organised jointly Save the Children, European Union and ministry of labour and employment.
The seminar was organised to share the draft policy with key stakeholders at the national level and get their feedback and finalise it. The main objective of the policy is to ensure improve lives and livelihoods of child labourers in Bangladesh in both formal and informal private sector.
The draft, first of its kind in Bangladesh, was prepared under the Partnerships to Combat Child Labour Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Bangladesh supported by the Education for Youth Empowerment (EYE) of Save the Children.
While business has been flourishing in the country for the last 20 to 30 years, social responsibility is a new concept for the community, the state minister said.
"Now we have a policy with our stockholders' opinion. If we frame a CSR law, will anybody abide by the law?" he asked. "We should not think about enacting a law so early but we've to move forward step by step."
Mr Haque said agriculture sector has the highest number child labour and to elimination of child labour from this sector is "close to impossible."
The government could keep only the readymade garment sector free from child labour.
"It is easy to deliver revolutionary speech but difficult to do. We cannot change anything from any sector in Bangladesh overnight. Elimination of child labour is possible but will take time," he said.
The minister expressed his disturbance over the difficulties he was facing in formulating a policy for the domestic workers and rules for Labour Law.
"In case of preparing rules for Labour Law, the factory owners become unhappy if we try to protect workers rights. The workers become dissatisfied if they see anything in favour of the owners," said the junior minister.
Labour secretary Mikhail Shipar who chaired the seminar, said the amount and areas of CSR spending of the corporate companies should be specified in the present CSR policy for children to ensure transparency and effectiveness of CSR spending by the private companies.
"If any company enjoys tax waiver from NBR by showing certain amount spent for CSR, the government can see it from the audit reports where the amount was spent and how the children were benefited from its CSR activities," he said.
Former adviser to a caretaker government Rasheda K Chowdhury said the moment the CSR policy was being discussed, millions of children could not go to school.
She called upon the government to ensure safety and protection of children and the opposition to refrain from violence.
"We should not ban informal sector to eliminate child labour, but we should bring it under regulatory framework to reduce exploitation of child workers," she said.
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No plan to enact CSR law: Chunnu
FE Report | Published: February 20, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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