Child domestic workers on Tuesday urged the government to ensure their basic rights and proper implementation of compulsory primary education for them.
Over 750 child domestic workers took part in the Child Domestic Workers Convention 2012 and shared their experiences in their respective workplaces.
Education for Youth Employment Programme, Save the Children Child Rights Unit and Ain O Salish Kendra organised the programme at Osmani Memorial Hall auditorium.
Experts taking part in the programme said child domestic work was the worst form of child labour where a huge number of children remain under-paid and completely out of education and social safety net.
They said in addition to the enactment of Domestic Workers Registration and Protection Act 2012, a registration system was vital to ensure their safety and to know work environment.
The experts said the main bar to the implementation of this proposed act was the recognition of a child’s age which was still confusing in many sectors.
The draft act mentioned that one should be called ‘child domestic worker’ who attains the age up to 12 years.
Law minister Shafique Ahmed said the Domestic Workers Registration and Protection Act 2012 act would help immensely ensure the rights of child domestic workers.
The minister urged the employees to consider and behave with child domestic workers as they do with their own children.
‘If necessary, develop the (draft) act following the policies of neighboring countries on child domestic workers,’ he advised the child experts.
Former advisor to the caretaker government Sultana Kamal said domestic workers were usually not registered, rather, they were under-paid and unable to access complaint procedures against their employers.
‘Around 35 laws are already in place concerning children but there is no comprehensive law in favor of these children who are working as domestic workers,’ said Sultana, also the executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra.
Labour and employment secretary Mikail Shipar, BRAC Legal unit director Faustina Perera and Save the Children country director Michael McGrath spoke, among others, at the programme.
They said it would be useful to declare a new social safety net programme to ensure that child domestic workers receive education that would help transform them into productive citizens.
Courtesy of New Age
