Law event
World
day against child labour observed
The
ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour (12 June)
in 2002 as a means to highlight the worldwide movement
against the unacceptable forms of child labour. This day
offers an opportunity to raise the visibility of the unacceptable
forms of child labour and to highlight efforts initiated
by various public and private agencies to address the
problem.
The
global theme for this year was the elimination of child
labour in one of the world's most dangerous sectors small-scale
mining and quarrying. The ILO estimates that at least
one million children aged 5 to 17 currently engaged in
small-scale mines and quarries around the world.
In
observance of the World Day Against Child Labour 2005,
the ILO in Dhaka organised a series of activities. The
main activity of the day was the Working Children's Rally
and Human Chain throughout the Dhaka City. Thousands of
children working in different hazardous sectors brought
out colorful processions and formed human chains in the
city from 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. They carried banners and
placards saying "We want a hazardous child labour
free Bangladesh". The rally was inaugurated by the
Chief Technical Adviser of the Dutch funded ILO-IPEC Project
Mr. Ronald Berghuys, Chief Executive of Dhaka Ahsania
Mission, Mr. Kazi Rafiqul Alam and Director of Resource
Integration Center, Mr. Abul Haseeb Khan at the Central
Shaheed Minar. A rally of ten trucks decorated with colorful
banners and cultural teams also paraded various parts
of Dhaka City.
In
addition to the working children and their parents, a
large number of community members, Ward Commissioners
and members of various non-government organisations and
community based organisations also participated in the
human chains in order to express their solidarity with
the demand of the children engaged in hazardous child
labour.
To
mark the World Day Against Child Labour, the ILO arranged
numerous other activities, such as productions of two
television programmes, which were shown on three private
television channels during prime time, production of colorful
posters, publishing newspaper supplements in five renowned
dailies, production and distribution T-shirts etc. in
order to raise awareness among the masses regarding unacceptable,
hazardous child labour in Bangladesh.
Source:
ILO, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Some
key statistics of the child labour situation in Bangladesh
The total child population of 5-17 years is 42.5 million
which is 32 percent of the total population
The number of economically active children (working children)
aged 5-17 years is 7.4 million
Of the 7.4 million working children, 3.8 million are categorized
as child labourers
1.3 million children estimated to be working long hours,
as high as 43 hours or more per week, which is hazardous
work
Source: BBS, 2002-03
