Child labor: A curse of Bangladesh

Child labor is a common problem in Bangladesh now a days. Almost 5 million children are working in various sector such as garments factory, automobile workshop, restaurant, house maid etc. Among them 17% work in the rural area and 83% in the urban area. The rules or definition of child labor is not same all around the world. It varies from country to country, culture to culture. In Bangladesh the minimum age of a children to be engaged in physical work is 14 years but that rule is hardly followed. There are some reasons behind the problem…

First problem is POVERTY. Bangladesh is a poor country with 16 crore population. But more than 30 % people of the country lives under poverty line. So the parents find it difficult to maintain their family by themselves. So when their children are about 5 or 6 they send him/her to earn money.

Second problem is Education. There is a close relationship between education and child labor. A recent study found that almost 50% of the child laborer do not attend school at all. A very small amount of children continue both school and work. So if they were influenced to go to school the number of child laborer would must be lessened.

Another problem is GARMENTS FACTORY. At present Bangladesh is the 2^nd  garments exporter of the world. It is contributing greatly in the economics of the country. Most of the workers employed in this garments are women and girl. So the number of child laborer increased.

Though it is not an easy task to eradicate this problem easily but our Government has taken some necessary steps to get rid of this problem as soon as possible.