Widespread child labour is a malady for any society, regardless of its socioeconomic conditions. No child should suffer for his or her birth on the wrong side of the poverty line. Yet, thousands of children across the country work from dawn till late at night to make ends meet. They don’t have a choice in a nation where about 70% of the population still lives below $2 a day.
Truth be told, we cannot remove child labour overnight. However, that shouldn’t warrant our compla-cency on this matter as a nation. Everyone should work actively to make working conditions safer for these child labourers. That’s the least we can do as a nation, in the near future.
People from all works of life are voicing their opinion about banning child labour in dangerous indus-tries such as welding, tanneries, construction, etc. Government is taking initiatives to develop better policies to curb such forms of child labour, albeit at snail’s pace.
Surprisingly, one sector always remains under the radar – our homes. Apart from occasional horrific stories of cruelty, of barbaric proportions, in the media, we hear very little about these under-age do-mestic workers.
With growing affluence, demand for domestic workers is fast growing. With an increasing number of poor young women finding better-paid jobs in the RMG sector, households are increasingly employing children under the age of 14. Moreover, they are “cheaper,” and more obedient, than older domestic aides. The last ILO survey conducted in 2006 indicated that 421,000 children were employed as domes-tic workers. This number may well be 2m at present, with an average age of 11.
These child labourers work for 15-18 hours every day, sweeping, scrubbing, cooking, and cleaning our households, in return for three meals and meagre incomes. Many of them sleep on unhygienic kitchen floors and without mosquito nets for less than 6 hours a day. Even worse, many are frequently subject-ed to physical punishments for minor mistakes and whims of their “masters.”
Despite living in households with modern amenities, most benefit very little from them. Perhaps, I should speak about their plight at length; we all know about them. It is happening right under our nos-es.
I am worried by the continued growth of child labour in households around us. Most of us from well-off households, strong advocates of eliminating child labour from society, seem to hardly notice them. They toil night and day in front of our eyes and yet, their living conditions matter little to us. Apart from occasionally pausing to hear one of them crying or wailing in a nearby home, we hardly think about them.
Are we becoming modern day slave masters? Where is our empathy for them? Are we failing as a soci-ety as we fight to eliminate child labour whilst promoting it in our very homes?
Every social movement should start from home. The fight against child labour is no different. We must realise that these poor, helpless children spend their most important years in many of our households. They grow up amongst us without their families. Our kindness is the least they deserve. Their future lies in our hands.
Education is a fundamental human right. Just imagine if we equipped domestic child workers with at least basic literacy and vocational skills – many of them would be able to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty. There are increasing numbers of institutional education opportunities opening across the country for such working children. The least we can do is send them there, and not force them to work for more than 8 hours a day. Ensuring their proper rest and diet is our responsibility.
Even if we accept child labour in the household due to the harsh economic realities of the country, we should at least grant them basic labour rights and pay them well. At present, domestic workers in Bang-ladesh are not even covered by labour laws. The government and other stakeholders should actively work to develop and implement legislation to grant these child workers such rights as soon as possible. A minimum age restriction punishable by fines and prison-time could be a beginning, albeit a harsh start according to many. However, we must realise that improving our moral standards in caring for them shouldn’t have to wait for legislation. We can certainly do better as humans.
If we are exploiting children in our very homes without unsettling thoughts of injustice, something must be wrong with us. It’s about time we start making amends, starting by taking a vow to improve the lives of children working in our households. How are we to remove child labour from society if we are turning a blind eye to the plights of those living in our homes? The time has come for us to act indi-vidually and collectively as a nation.