At the Aminbazar landfill on the outskirts of Dhaka, mountains of waste tell a story of survival and neglect.
Hundreds of women and children scavenge daily amid the stench of rotting garbage, where breathing is difficult but life goes on.
City corporation trucks arrive continuously, dumping waste collected from across the capital.
As soon as the garbage is unloaded, women and children rush forward with large sacks, scavenging bottles and scraps to sell for survival—many barefoot, walking over broken glass and hazardous waste.
Among them is Mohammad Azizul, who sorts discarded bottles alongside his wife.
Nearby, inside a makeshift shack perched 50 feet above the garbage, their four-year-old daughter Jhorna tries to learn the alphabet.
A small clock, a water bottle, and a food box lie beside her as she studies atop a mountain of trash.
A little farther away, seven people, including three children, gather for a midday meal.
Their team leader, Mohammad Jasim Uddin Bepari, recalls: “When we first started working here, we suffered from severe skin diseases. Now, bone loss and joint problems are common. It was unbearable in the beginning, but we’ve become used to it. Recently, almost all of us had skin rashes.”
Jasim estimates that 200–300 children work as waste pickers at the Aminbazar landfill.
Many were forced into this life by extreme poverty or after losing their homes to river erosion.
Among them are 13-year-old Rihad, 15-year-old Babu, and 18-year-old Kawsar, who collect scraps daily to support their families.
In another part of the landfill, a young woman, barefoot and carrying a heavy sack, says she has been scavenging here for four years.
“I earn between Tk400 and Tk700 a day by collecting sacks of recyclables,” she explains.
Jasim adds that over 1,000 people make a living collecting scrap materials at the site.
Institutional denial
When asked about child labour at the landfill, Dhaka North City Corporation Public Relations Officer Mohammad Zobayer Hossain told Dhaka Tribune: “The city corporation does not support child labour. We are working to stop it and to ensure children grow up in a healthy environment.”
When asked how children continue to work and live at the landfill without permission, he said: “Staying overnight at the landfill is not permitted. Those who do are usually the children of workers or truck drivers.”
A pattern of neglect along the Buriganga
The struggle is mirrored along the banks of the Buriganga river.
In Gabtoli, six-year-old Shakil Ahmed walks hand-in-hand with his father, Mohammad Aminul Islam, who moved to Dhaka in 2009 after river erosion destroyed his home.
“The rent is cheap here. We are poor people—these problems don’t matter for us,” Aminul said.
At Sadarghat, children under 16—Mehedi, Kawsar, and Mahim—play by the polluted riverside where they live with their families.
Rupa Banu, 40, cares for her grandchildren and nephews here. She survives by begging, collecting bottles, or eating leftover food from hotels.
“There is no playground for children here,” she laments. “When they play by the river, people scold or chase them away. But with no other space, we endure everything.”
Nearby, her grandson Akhtar Hossain and nephew Rifat swim in the contaminated water.
“We bathe, play, and sometimes sell water here,” they say.
Further along, Moyna lies with her eight-month-old baby while another child plays with discarded plastic bottles.
“Feeding my children is very hard. Sometimes I beg, sometimes I ask for food from houses, sometimes we eat at ‘Bhalo Kajer Hotel.’ Occasionally I sell water,” she explains.
Many children here, like 12-year-old Rabbi, are victims of river erosion, their families displaced from southern districts.
Systemic failure
Leedo’s Executive Director, Md Forhad Hossain, sharply criticizes the state’s failure: “We have not yet created a proper environment for children to grow up in. Although the state is the guardian of every child, it has failed to protect them. These children are growing up scavenging waste, falling sick, facing physical harm—yet they are supposed to be the future of Bangladesh. This cannot be a child’s life.”
He notes that approximately 1.3 to 1.4 million children in Bangladesh are engaged in hazardous labour.
“The state promises to ensure their rights, but reality is the opposite. The government has failed not only to secure food, shelter, and education for these children, but even their survival has become difficult.”
Health risks are severe
Dr Alpana Jahan, assistant professor of neonatology at Dr MR Khan Shishu Hospital, warns that children in these conditions suffer from malnutrition, diarrhea, pneumonia, skin diseases, and impaired development.
In addition to its growing burden of conventional waste, Bangladesh is now grappling with a serious e-waste crisis.
According to a study by the advocacy group VOICE, the country generates approximately 2.81 million tons of electronic waste annually—a figure that is rising by nearly 20% each year.
Researchers at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) project that by 2035, this volume will reach 4.62 million tons, posing an even greater threat to public health, particularly among children.
A recent visit by the Dhaka Tribune reporter to the Aminbazar landfill revealed towering piles of mixed waste, including discarded electronics.
The scene underscores the difficulty of shielding Bangladesh’s youngest citizens from increasingly toxic environments.
Between 2018 and 2021, Bangladesh was ranked as the world’s most polluted country, with Dhaka consistently listed as the second most polluted city globally.
In 2021 alone, air pollution was linked to the deaths of an estimated 19,000 children under the age of five, according to Unicef-supported research.
A newly published Handbook on Children’s Health and the Environment—released in September by the Directorate General of Medical Education—warns that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is strongly associated with adverse birth outcomes, including preterm delivery, intrauterine growth restriction, and low birth weight.
According to Unicef, nearly two-thirds of children affected by global malnutrition live in just 20 countries, including Bangladesh.
Malnourished children often perform poorly in school, earn less as adults, and remain trapped in poverty.
Psychological toll
Psychologist Kazi Rumana Haque explains the mental health impact: “Children raised in garbage heaps develop low self-esteem. They are labelled as ‘tokai’ or street children, deprived of nutritious food and education. They stop dreaming. This leads to inferiority complexes, depression, and in some cases, involvement in crime.”
She notes they often lack creativity, confidence, and emotional control.
When asked why he works instead of attending school, 18-year-old Kawsar at the Aminbazar landfill replied: “We are poor and cannot afford to study. Even if we study in this country, it doesn’t help. No one gets a job without money. Nothing happens without money. So what’s the point of studying?”
Unicef data reveal that only 19% of children aged three to five in Bangladesh participate in pre-primary education.
While primary enrollment is nearly universal, dropout rates rise with age—due to early marriage for girls and child labor for boys.
Only 64% of children complete secondary education. With children making up 34% of the population—about 58 million—the nation’s future workforce is at stake.
Policy failures
Mohammad Ziaul Haque, director of Air Quality Management at the Department of Environment, told Dhaka Tribune: “Modern, eco-friendly waste management initiatives have been undertaken, but city corporations and municipalities must play a bigger role in implementation.”
An anonymous DoE official revealed that the Aminbazar landfill has no environmental clearance.
Waste has been dumped there since 2007 without approval, despite Solid Waste Management Rules 2021 requiring environmentally sound disposal.
In one of the world’s most densely populated cities, the shortage of playgrounds is acute.
Rapid urbanization has reduced open spaces, forcing children along the Buriganga to play amid garbage.
Local tea vendor Yunus Molla from Kamrangirchar sums up the reality: “I have no choice but to live here because the rent is cheap. One of my sons studies in a madrasa, the other doesn’t go to school. Sometimes he helps in the shop, sometimes he just plays by the river.”
When asked if there is a proper playground nearby, he said: “There is nothing here except garbage.”
Unicef warns that to eliminate child labor by 2025, Bangladesh must act 11 times faster than its current pace.
For the children of Aminbazar and the Buriganga, change cannot come soon enough.
