Concerted effort of all government and non-government entities has become an urgent need to prevent child labour for the greater interest of flourishing children’s physical and mental health.
Many children especially coming from the poor and distressed families suffer from various physical and mental problems due to their engagement in
risky labour.
So, all the authorities concerned should come forward and work together to protect the children from their vulnerable condition.
The observation came at a meeting related to prevention of child labour held at Hotel Warisan in Rajshahi city yesterday.
The meeting was organised marking the World Child Labour Prevention Day- 2019.
“Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams” was the main theme of the day.
Wave Foundation and Manusher Jonno Foundation jointly organised the meeting in association with UKaid.
Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, who addressed the meeting as the chief guest, said the present government with dynamic
leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working relentlessly to protect the children from risky labour.
All the field level government and non-government organisations should supplement the government endeavor through contributing to this field.
He favoured for counseling, entertainment, opportunity to study beside work can ensure a child’s future life beautiful. We need to stop the ongoing
malpractices against the children. More anti-poverty schemes can mitigate the problem, he added.
Chaired by former registrar of Rajshahi University Prof Abdus Salam the meeting was addressed, among others, by Deputy Director of Department of
Social Services Rashedul Kabir, Editor of Daily Sonar Desh Akbraul Hassan Millat, Deputy Executive Director of Wave Foundation Anwar Hossain and
Coordinating Officer (Child Rights) of Manusher Jonno Foundation Pabloo Neruda.
During her keynote presentation, Professor Murshida Ferdous Binte Habib from Department of Psychology in Rajshahi University put forward a set of
recommendations on how to prevent child labour.
She told the meeting that the government identified 38 child labour-prone sectors in 2012. Of these sectors, the readymade garment sector and shrimp
industry are currently free from child labour. The main cause of child labor in the country is poverty.
Professor Murshida viewed that the children are forced to sell labor for life in the age group of 6 to 7 years due to family and socio-economicreasons.
In most cases children are being involved in various types of work due to helplessness. Because of that many children can’t go to school.
Many children have to work for their family livelihood. On the contrary, the employers, owners, and managers and concerned authorities prefer to
engage children at work as they can easily be exploited to work longer hours with minimum wages, she added, reports BSS from Rajshahi.
