Schoolgoing children are now processing tobacco leaves – drying them in the sun and sorting them into bundles – in Pashchim Bhelabari, a village in Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat.
As many as 20 children were found working this job for the past two weeks as local traders hired them for minimum wage – each of them gets Tk30-40 every day.
These children come from poor families and are eager to earn the money to support their families, or pay for their schooling.
On the weekdays, they work before and after schooltime, and on Fridays and Saturdays they work all day.
Mazidul Islam, 8, a second-grader at the local primary school, works in tobacco leaf processing so that he can pay for his education, as his parents are too poor to do it for him. “I work at least seven to eight hours drying and bundling tobacco leaves every day,” he said, adding he earned a daily wage of Tk30.
Hafizul Islam, 10, a fourth-grader at the same school, said: “There are 20 of us here, from two schools. We work before and after school for five days and all day on Fridays and Saturdays.
“We earn Tk30-40 every day, and spend it for our families. Some of us have also bought new clothes with the money,” he added.
Liton Islam, a seventh-grader, said the smell of tobacco leaves were bad, but they were used to it now. He also said they worked this job every year, adding: “We do not want to work like this, but our poverty compels us to do it.”
Ashraful Islam, a local tobacco trader, said he hired school students to process tobacco leaves because they were from very poor families. However, he claimed he never allowed these children to work during school hours.
Taser Miah, another tobacco dealer, said children were hired for this job because it was easy work and they could be paid with much lower wages than the adults.
Sirazul Islam, a parent, said his third-grader son Habibur Rahman earned Tk35 every day, which is a good support for his family. “But I have told my son to not miss school and work before and after school hours,” he said, adding he was not aware of the health hazards associated with tobacco leaf processing.
Minhazul Islam, local primary schoolteacher, said he knew about this matter but there was nothing he could do to stop it, because these children came from impoverished families and needed to work in order to support their livelihoods.
