Child Labour
(Published in International Journal of Technical Cooperation, 4 (1), Summer, 1998)
CHILD LABOUR IN BANGLADESH
Nasim Banu, Shahjahan Bhuiyan, Islamic University, Kushtia and Smita Sabhlok, University of Southern California
In an increasingly integrated world, people feel more intimately connected with communities and processes in distant lands. Today the world seems to have high expectations and aspirations for its children, certainly higher than seeing them break bricks or straining their eyes over dimly lit workbenches (Stalker, 1996:3). Indeed, international anxiety about needless child labour is mounting. Demonstration marches protesting against child labour began on each of the continents in January 1998 to culminate in Geneva when the International Labour Organisation meets to take up the issue. Meantime, the extent of child labour in a country is being taken as an indicator of how far that country has fallen behind developmentally. After all, child labour dooms many to lives of disease, misery and destitution, thereby reinforcing the cycle of poverty and exploitation. Child labour has become more visible and controversial in recent years as structural reforms and macro-economic stabilisation policies have stressed exports. The resulting intense global competition in carpets, textiles, apparel, shoe and leather items has promoted the employment of thousands of children who often work under quite inhumane conditions. But children also work in other areas, so that the export-oriented industries may be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Why do poor parents send their children to work? Will employers be able to resist the threat of consumer boycotts and trade sanctions or will they have to reconsider their child labour employment practices?
1
High economic stakes are at risk and the lives of hundreds of thousand children are involved.
What is child labour? The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) makes a distinction between child work and
CHILD LABOUR IN BANGLADESH
Nasim Banu, Shahjahan Bhuiyan, Islamic University, Kushtia and Smita Sabhlok, University of Southern California
In an increasingly integrated world, people feel more intimately connected with communities and processes in distant lands. Today the world seems to have high expectations and aspirations for its children, certainly higher than seeing them break bricks or straining their eyes over dimly lit workbenches (Stalker, 1996:3). Indeed, international anxiety about needless child labour is mounting. Demonstration marches protesting against child labour began on each of the continents in January 1998 to culminate in Geneva when the International Labour Organisation meets to take up the issue. Meantime, the extent of child labour in a country is being taken as an indicator of how far that country has fallen behind developmentally. After all, child labour dooms many to lives of disease, misery and destitution, thereby reinforcing the cycle of poverty and exploitation. Child labour has become more visible and controversial in recent years as structural reforms and macro-economic stabilisation policies have stressed exports. The resulting intense global competition in carpets, textiles, apparel, shoe and leather items has promoted the employment of thousands of children who often work under quite inhumane conditions. But children also work in other areas, so that the export-oriented industries may be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Why do poor parents send their children to work? Will employers be able to resist the threat of consumer boycotts and trade sanctions or will they have to reconsider their child labour employment practices?
1
High economic stakes are at risk and the lives of hundreds of thousand children are involved.
What is child labour? The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) makes a distinction between child work and