Munna Sarkar sleeps for just six hours a day as he works from early morning till midnight only to ensure a better life.
Now a laguna (human hauler) driver in Dhaka, Munna started working as an assistant to a leguna driver six years ago at the age of just 10.Munna earns up to Tk600 daily.
Despite aiming for something “big” in future through higher education, he is now planning to have a laguna of his own so he can earn more.
“I will move to Saudi Arabia five years later,” he told the newspaper, amid uncertainty over his plan.
Eight-year-old Champa Parul Akter works as a replacement for her housemaid mother when the latter falls ill.
Parul has no choice but to do so very often as the money her parents make is badly needed to run their family.
But unlike other child labourers, Parul studies in a school.
Currently a class one student in a Dhaka school, she dreams of pursuing higher studies and coming by a white-collar job when she grows up.
Child labour remains an issue in the country despite the government's pledge to eliminate it from all sectors by 2025 in line with the National Plan of Action (NPA 2020-2025) and the Children Act 2013.
The ground reality is that eradicating child labour is still a tall order in Bangladesh, which is home to 1.7 million child labourers.
Speaking in parliament in January, Begum Monnujan Sufian, state minister for labour and employment, revealed the figure from a 2013 national study.
A whopping 1.2 million of the aforementioned children are engaged in hazardous work, she added.
Meanwhile, a 2003 official estimate says the number of child labourers aged 5 to 17 was 3.4 million.
Experts mainly blame poverty and illiteracy for the situation, which is shattering the possibilities of a safer and prosperous future for struggling children.
The situation worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, some experts say.
Abdus Shahid Mahmood, director of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BASF), said a number of people, mostly poor, come to cities for livelihood.
“But many parents either do not care or cannot afford education for their children. They engage their children in various jobs for some extra income,” he said.
Other than poverty and illiteracy, he finds the lax implementation of the law and social norms as being other major reasons for what is clearly a national problem.
Child labour is ultimately pushing up illiteracy, the BASF director mentioned, calling for the formation of upazila-level children's welfare boards to monitor and help combat the situation.
Mohammad Mahmud Hasan Liton, general secretary of Dhaka District Light Vehicle Road Transport Owners Association, argued that the association discourages child labour.
“We can't take responsibility for child labour in the transport sector,” he said.
Contradicting laws
Under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (BLA), child labour is legal for children aged above 14.
Interestingly, the same law considers children aged between 14 and 18 years as "adolescents".
But the Children Act 2013 says all persons aged up to 18 years of age shall be treated as children.
If any person employs any child or adolescent or permits any child or adolescent to work in contravention of any provision of the country's labour law, she/he is to be punished with a fine that may extend to Tk5,000.
