Says Seep quoting survey
Some 45 lakh working children in Bangladesh are at risk-involving labours, said Social and Economic Enhancement Programme (Seep) yesterday.
Referring to a government survey, Seep officials said the number of child labourers is increasing day by day under the country’s present socio-economic condition.
Speaking at a press conference at the National Press Club, Seep Coordinator Md Mahsin Uddin Sumon said the present number of child labourers in Bangladesh is 79 lakh.
Of them, 64 lakh are engaged in various forms of child labour in villages while 15 lakh in cities, he said.
Sumon said they were placing the information in reference to a survey on child labour in the country by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Quoting the survey, he said a total of 45 types of risk-involving labours are present in Bangladesh. Of them, children are engaged in 41 types of the labours as one third of the total labourers are children. Of the child labourers, 73.50 percent are boys while 26.50 are girls, he added.
Seep officials said the children engaged in labour are deprived of their basic rights and become victims of various physical and mental tortures.
Future of many child labourers is becoming uncertain as many of them are getting involved in different immoral activities including drug addiction, they added.
Seep leaders demanded adoption of a national policy to reduce the increasing rate of child labourers and ensure their basic rights.
Seep General Secretary Fazlul Haque Chawdhury and Monitoring Officer Rafiqul Islam Baree were present at the press conference.
