Child labour in Bangladesh

Children from 8 to 18 years age have to do manual labour. Many of them work as domestic servant and maid-servants. Sometimes they are engaged to work in the fields, in shops, hotels, restaurants, small factories etc. they polish boots, sell peanuts, newspapers, vegetables and others. They work as porters.

They catch fish and sell them in the market. Though labour is sacred, child labour is a crime. The people who engage them take full advantage of their minor age and their helplessness. Children engaged as a house servant or maid-servants have to work from early morning to late hours at night. They have to work, so to say, fifteen to eighteen hours a day. They are not allowed any recess and recreation. They are always dealt with abuse and reproof. Very often they are punished mercilessly. They are often compelled to take rotten and inferior food. In fact, they are not treated as human being.  They have similar ill-treatment in the hotels, shops and factories. They work for a longer period with fewer wages. Their masters very often treat them mercilessly. Minor boys working as rickshaw pullers and factory workers often face accidents, lose their limbs and pass their days as disabled persons. Then they have to live as beggars. But as a nation the people of Bangladesh can not remain simply silent observers they should realize the future of their country depends upon the children of to-day. 

A country of children having poor and ill health will expedite the degeneration of the nation. So people of all section of this country as well as the government should give serious thought to this problem. Child labour should be stopped by law. Education should be made compulsory for the children. Poor parents should be paid allowances to supplement the income and be asked to send their children to schools. Children coming from poor families should be given free books and kits.