For child labourers, there is no childhood

In most of the student halls at Dhaka University, several children aged 6 to 14 years work in the canteens. After every Eid or Puja vacation, new faces arrive. In the beginning, they are very timid. It is a challenge for them to adjust to the new environment but they strive hard to fit in. 

They are frequently subjected to physical and verbal abuse, not only from their employers but also from the students. Gradually, these children learn to adapt and pick up the skills necessary for survival. Time makes them tough and resilient enough to survive. The so-called "street smarts" of the city take over.

It is indeed shameful that our highest educational institutions have been allowing child labour for years and have taken no initiative to eliminate it. It surely is a deflection from the core value of educational institutions, where we expect the students to grow as rational and sensible human beings. 

Most of these boys come from the southern districts of our country. Their childhood is spent in the different hall canteens of Dhaka University. They take orders from the students, serve food and drinks to tables, and clean up the place. Over time, their childhood transitions into adolescence. Their voices change, their physique changes, and the innocence in their faces disappears. As they grow young, they realise their wages are too low to pass life as adults. 

Most then try to move to the Middle East or other countries to work there as labourers. They are paid a very low wage there as well since they lack the necessary education and training to perform better. As some of them leave these canteens, new kids take their places and the cycle continues.

Under section 34 of the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, hiring adolescents under 14 years and allowing them to work in any kind of establishment or occupation is prohibited. This Labour Act also contains a section regarding employing adolescents as labourers, where it forbids hiring adolescents aged 14 to 18 years in dangerous jobs. Whereas children aged 12 years or above are allowed to engage in "light work" that does not interfere with their schooling or endanger their physical or mental development.

However, the laws and their enforcement are quite different in Bangladesh. 

From the National Child Labour Survey 2022, we find that the percentage of working children has increased to 8.9% from 8.7% in the previous survey of 2013, while 1.07 million children are engaged in hazardous labour. A survey report published in July 2023 has also revealed that in the past nine years, child labour has gone up 4.5%.

The innocence of the boys in the hall canteens may rouse the minds of students at times, witnessing the harshness and violent nature of poverty. But that does not seem to last long. Had it lasted, this practice of employing children at a lower wage in university canteens would not have continued for years. 

This is not just the case of Dhaka University, but it exists in all other public universities in Bangladesh. Since these children can be employed at a very low wage, their "cheap labour" is exploited at the maximum possible level in every sector of the country. 

Our reputations for exploiting workers by paying a meagre wage and if required, silencing their voices by any means necessary are widely known.

If we look into the root causes of child labour, poverty and disparity come first. The economic shock from the Covid-19 pandemic and rising inflation have deteriorated the situation. The number of boys attending school aged 12 years or above has fallen drastically. Most of these working children come from families where their parents struggle to provide three meals a day. Working in university hall canteens at least ensures their daily subsistence. 

But when they get exposed to such an environment, most of them lose the motivation to attain further education. They get distracted and in some cases even addicted to drugs. It then becomes very difficult to rehabilitate them towards education, as most of them fail to sustain through the process. 

From this viewpoint, endeavours to ensure primary education for children in the poorest segment of society can be more effective in reducing child labour than efforts to restore education for street children. 

Proper monitoring and efforts should be made at the grassroots level so that these children do not need to come to cities to support their families financially. The government must play its part and the NGOs, INGOs and volunteer organisations should step forward. Families that are poor enough to depend on their children's labour must be sorted out and necessary support and incentives should be provided to them.

Most of the canteen leaseholders, along with institutional heads, justify this never-ending structure of oppression, claiming that the exploitation of "cheap labour" by children allows them to provide food at a low cost for students. This means that by capitalising on the poverty of marginalised people and depriving their children of basic education, our university students are reaping benefits themselves.

When young people become conformists, where will the light come from? Efforts must be there from their end to banish child labour from educational institutions. As conscious citizens of the country, others must avoid products that are produced by suppressing and maltreating our children. 

Ensuring the appropriate oversight and enforcement of legislation against child labour can be an effective step toward eliminating it. As we step into another new year, can we be a little more sensitive and attentive towards the deprived children?

Nafis Sadik is a research associate at the Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management (BIGM) and a postgraduate of Economics from the University of Dhaka. Email: nafis.sadik@bigm.edu.bd  

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.