Destitute Children and Initiatives for their Welfare in Bangladesh

Quoting UNICEF, Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) in its report (1999)

noted that there were about 0.225 million female children engaged in domestic

labour in Dhaka city. Of them, 90% were aged between 9 to 16 years (BSAF,

1999:47). Two surveys were conducted in cooperation with ILO on child labour

engaged in bidi and match factories. According to the survey report, a total of 21,

217 children were working at bidi factories in Rangpur, Kushtia and Tangail in

2004. Of them, 11, 561 (54.49%) were male children and 9.656 (45.51%) female

children. They worked at the worst form of working environment (Karim, et al ,

2004:35). According to another survey reports (2005) about 855 child labours

were engaged at match factories in Dhaka and Narayangonj areas. Of them, 427

(49.94%) were male children and 428 (50.06%) were female children. Similarly,

some 653 child labours were working at match factories in Chittagong and

Bandarbans districts, which was 44% of total labour. Of them, 44.50% were male

children and 55.50% were female children (Chowdhury et al, 2005:13-15).

On the other hand, National Child Labour Survey quoting BBS statistics reveal

that a total of child labour aged between 5-17 years are 3.20 million. Of them, 2.50

million are male and the rest is female. The survey was conducted during 2002-

2003 period (Khair, 2004:01). These children are deprived of getting education,

one of the fundamental rights. This is strong violation of the rights of children

and all types of conventions as well as rules and regulations. These children

are engaged in tannery, chemical industry, transport sector, work-shops, ship-

breaking, dyeing factory, shopping mall, shrimp and hatchery and such 200 types

of occupations. Of these occupations, 39 occupations are very risk-prone and they

are to work there for 8 to 10 hours but get wages half of an adult labour.

Conclusion

The government of Bangladesh is committed to meet the basic rights of its

citizens as Bangladesh is constitutionally a welfare-oriented State. Apart, the

government is also committed to implement the CRC, as Bangladesh is one of

the 22-countries which supported the CRC at the time of inception (Siddique,

2004). Moreover, the government has taken various types of programs for

children for ensuring safe shelter, healthy environment, nutrient food, education,

recreation, unhampered growth and right to express opinion freely. To achieve the

objectives, the government has set up administrative arrangement under various

ministries, departments and institutions. These include: the Ministry of Women

and Children Affairs, Department of Social Service of the Ministry of Social

Welfare, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Ministry of Health

and Family welfare etc. The government is implementing the children welfare

oriented programs in cooperation with non-government national and international

organizations like UNICEF, ILO, UNDP,UNESCO, WHO, FAO, Red Crescent

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