30,000 children withdrawn from hazordous works in last 5yrs

As many as 30,000 children, who were engaged in various hazardous works, have been imparted training on non-formal education (NFE) and skill development training (SDT) after withdrawing them from their workplaces in the country.
They were also given six-month skill development training under a five-year project titled ‘Elimination of Child Labour in Hazardous Works Phase-II’ that came to an end in June this year, M Shamsul Alam, project director, told BSS on Wednesday.
The project was implemented under the Ministry of Labour and Employment in cooperation with 76 NGOs, 40 of them exclusively working in Dhaka and Narayanganj.
The main purpose of the project, executed in all the six divisions of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Rajshahi, was to keep the children away from hazardous works and eventually engage in such jobs completely free from jeopardy, said the PD of the venture.
In doing so, he said, the 30,000 children engaged in various sectors were trained up on varied trades such as tailoring and embroidery, block printing and boutique, beauty parlor, hair dressing, wood working (carpentry), radio TV mechanics and craftsmanship (bamboo and stick).
Out of the total training recipients, best 482 children of Dhaka and Narayanganj were awarded prizes and distributed necessary tools in consistent with their respective trades at a function here yesterday.
Distributing the prizes and tools, Minister for Labour and Employment and Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Eng. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain distributed the prizes among the recipients at BIAM auditorium on Wednesday in the city.
Labour and Employment Secretary M Ataharul Islam chaired the function while chairperson of Child Rights Forum Wahida Bani spoke as special guest.
Eng. Mosharraf said the issue of children in hazardous job should be considered in view of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The country’s poor socio-economic status coupled with manifold obstacles like looming climate change and global economic recession are forcing the children to work in risky jobs, said the minister.
He said it is not possible to remove all the working children from risky jobs, but efforts must be continued to keep them away from the jobs as far as possible.
Eng. Mosharraf said the government’s plan to continue the project phase-III utilizing the lessons learnt from the phases II and I aimed at raising the number of skilled children to 75,000.
The minister made a fervent call to the employers to employ children in less hazardous works.

Courtesy of BSS, Dhaka