Around 500 children aged 5-17 years, are engaged in jobs in the battery recycling sector across the capital, without having provided with protective gears.
Largely belonging to poor families, they are pursuing the hazardous jobs in exchange of little money to support themselves.
According to the baseline survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the number of children engaged in the sector is 5,513 of whom 417 are working in around 1,200 battery recharge shops inside the capital.
Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Act 2013 has set the minimum age for doing such jobs as 18.
The number of children working in this sector has increased in last few years because of mushrooming of battery recharging shops.
The survey highlights dissatisfaction of most of the children engaged in the hazardous job. It shows that around 87% do not wear any protective gear while working. Because of poverty, 92% of them do not attend schools.
Md Mamun, 10, worker at such an establishment in Begumbazar, said: “My father died and my mother works as a domestic help. My owner provides me with lunch and supper. My job is to fill in acid sometimes which touches my skin and causes itching, sometimes the skin is scratched.”
Another worker, Jahir Khan, 9, based in Segunbagicha, said: “My father has married another woman and does not give us any money. So I am working to support my family. I work over seven hours and make Tk2,000 a month.”
Abu Taleb, 11, a worker based in Uttara, claimed that while recycling batteries he faces problems in breathing in large. He is paid Tk120 per day.
In 2009, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressed concern over children in Bangladesh working in five sectors considered as “highly risky,” battery recharging being one of them.
Khandoker Mostan Hossain, joint secretary and deputy chief (labour) in Ministry of Labour and Employment, said: “We have developed National Plan of Action to implement National Child Labour Elimination Policy 2010. The committee has been formed at district levels and the officials will implement the policy in their respective areas.”
“Under a project called ‘Jhukipurno Kaje Niyojito Shishu,’ [children engaged in risky jobs] we are working with 50,000 children engaged in hazardous jobs. We are providing them with non-formal education and developing their skills, so that they do not need to go back to the risky jobs,” he added.
With technical support from the International Labour Organisation, government had funded around Tk65crore to the project that is expected to end by middle of 2014, said Hossain.
However, Hossain said elimination of all forms of child labour was not possible and they were focusing on risky jobs only.
Abdul Mannan Rashed, owner of a battery recharging outlet, said:
“We are not forcing the children to work. They willingly come to us in search of a job. We are helping them by giving money; otherwise, they had to beg.”
Most of the battery recharging establishments are located in the capital’s Kamrangirchar, Segunbagicha, Uttara, Dholaikhal, Begumbazar, Savar and Soyarighat area.
Prof SM Imamul Huq of soil, water and environment department of Dhaka University, said: “Batteries contain toxic elements like cadmium, mercury and lead acid, an acid that can cause itching to skin if contacted and might result into loss of vision if contacted to eyes.”