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August 1, 2004 

Does any one care about child workers?

Ausma Akter Urmee

Raju works at a weaving factory for eight hours on average a day. At a dimly lit damp room at Mirpur Benarasi Palli, the young boy's job is to help the weavers with thread and sometimes he himself does the border work on saris. At the end of a week, the boy gets only Tk. 10 as his wage.

There is another boy like Raju working at another factory. The second boy, Ramiz, helps his father who desperately needs his help to accelerate his work.

There are other boys like these two working in the area. They are ill-paid and work in difficult conditions. Their families defend their works saying they are too poor to keep them home or send them to school. Some of the boys, in fact, help their weaver fathers.

Says Ramiz's father, Sabdar Mia, "I've six children. It's quite difficult for me to take care of them. I need help from them. If the son works, the family benefits. Sending him to school is out of question."

But Ramiz and Raju want to read and go to school. They really do not like to work.

The weaving town at Mirpur is known for making quality saris, especially Katan and Benarasi, the wedding dress for women.

Each factory has three types of workers: the weavers and their senior and junior helpers. Each weaver is paid on the basis of a sari he makes ranging from Tk. 300 to 1,200 and depending on the type of the sari. The quicker a sari is made the bigger the income. The main artisans feel that it is impossible to work without help such as handing the thread and doing other errands for them. The artisans also do not consider the work by children as abuse. They think the works the children do are lighter and far better than that they do in tanneries or bidi factories.

Argues Abdul Jabbar Chowdhury, a leader of the weavers' association in Mirpur, "An adult artisan will take at least 12 days to make a good sari without help from a boy. With help he can do it in a week."

He admits that poverty is driving the families to send their children to work here, even though the wages are very low. The families do not mind the low wages because they think the children would have otherwise wasted their time idly at home. If not working they are also not going to school.

Dr. MA Azim Jahangir, head of Planning and Implementation Division at Bangladesh Handloom Board, says, "In a country like Bangladesh it's difficult to eliminate child labour. Children are required to work to help their families. This is a cottage industry where all members of a family work."

Azim points out that weaving a sari needs at least two hands the artisan and someone else to help him. This helps cut the costs and improve an artisan's skill.

Yet, there are people who grumble against the use of young children in such work, which deprives them of education and affects their health.

This cottage industry employs children of various ages and according to one study there are at least 590 children here, many of them as young as eight while many, nearly 62 per cent, work for 13 hours a day.

The problem relating to the child workers is complex. It is not easy to end child labour overnight. For example, there are some schools, funded by ILO and other organisations, for the poor children where education is free. That does not always attract the poor children.

Whether the children are sent to work by poor parents or they can ill-afford education their work means violation of their rights.

The weavers association, however, favours a middle path. Give the children less working hours and allow them time to go to schools. Not a bad idea isn't it?

Source: News Network.