'Child waste collectors left out of government plans'

Child rights activist and Grambangla Unnayan Committee (GUC) Executive Director AKM Maksud drew attention to the issue when reading out the paper at a media advocacy campaign titled “Health and Education Situation of Child Waste Pickers in Bangladesh”. Maksud said: “The state has failed to secure the rights of child waste collectors as children, even though Bangladesh has signed the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which asks to ensure free primary education for all children in section 28.” The paper was presented at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Thursday, organised by GUC and Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF). Quoting the study: “The literacy percentage among the waste collectors' families was only 14% while none of these people received any state benefits under social protection cordon activities such as the education wave, old-age allowance, pregnancy allowance, widow allowance, disability allowance, VGD etc.” Rina Begum and Mariam Akhter, two waste collectors from Matuail area, were present at the programme as representatives of their community, with BMSF General Secretary Khairuzzaman Kamal in chair. GUC Advocacy and Networking Manager ABK Reza and GUC official Sayma Sayed were also present, among others. “I have worked in this profession for 12 years. It is an unhygienic and dangerous job, but I have no other option to earn a livelihood for my family. Many of us become sick while working in dump site,” said Rina Begum. Mariam Akhter further said: “Typhoid, diarrhoea, dysentery, tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, skin and wound disease are very common for us who work in the waste dumping sites.” According to the Environment Department, some 120,000 people who earn their living through waste recycling and trade chains across the country recycle and reuse some 15% of the total waste in Dhaka, worth Tk1,071 in a year, yet they remain unrecognised and neglected. “It is not possible to acquire the sustainable development goal of education by ignoring the development of the most endangered population, as the child waste collectors' interest is especially involved there,” Maksud added.