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Sunday | January 25, 2026 | Dhaka

3.54m child labourers in Bangladesh: BBS

Published · Updated

Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has released its ‘National Child Labour 2022’ report, revealing that there are currently 3.54 million child labourers in the country.

The report was unveiled at the Auditorium of the Bureau of Statistics in Agargaon, Dhaka, with State Minister for Planning Shahiduzzaman Sarkar as the chief guest.

During the event, BBS highlighted the government’s initiatives to uphold children’s rights, including adherence to regional and international convention agreements and structural development efforts.

The government aims to eradicate all forms of child labour by 2025, with planned surveys such as the National Child Labour Survey 2022 and Sectoral Child Labour Survey 2023 intended to guide strategy formulation.

Mohammad Saddam Hossain Khan, focal point officer of the survey, noted that the National Child Labour Survey 2022 is the fourth survey conducted on child labour in Bangladesh. It aimed to collect data on the labour force, employment, and unemployment among the population aged 5-17 years.

The survey, conducted from February 5 to May 5 of the previous year, covered 30,816 households and provided insights into working children, child labour, and vulnerable child labour across rural and urban areas.

According to the report, out of the 3.54 million working children aged 5-17 years, 1.76 million are out of labour and 1.78 million are in child labour. Of these, 1.07 million are engaged in vulnerable child labour.

Rural areas account for 2.73 million child labourers, while urban areas have 0.81 million. Additionally, 1.33 million children are involved in child labour in rural areas, compared to 0.44 million in urban areas.

The report also highlights 0.82 million children in rural areas and 0.24 million in urban areas engaged in vulnerable child labour.

Other notable attendees included Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director of the International Labour Organisation; Dr. Shahnaz Arefin, Secretary of Statistics and Information Management Department; and Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Director General of BBS.