Proma Alam :
Even as global prosperity has increased in many places, its fruits have not been shared equally.
Among the most troubling indicators of this imbalance is child labor, both a symptom of poverty and a cause of its persistence.
The latest reports from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF show that approximately 138 million children are engaged in child labor worldwide.
More than 54 million of them perform hazardous work threatening their health, development or future opportunities.
Since 2000, the number of child laborers has fallen by over 100 million, a welcome reversal amid earlier declines stalling. Yet the progress is fragile.
Between 2016 and 2020, child labor surged in many regions; the downward trend since 2020 represents something of a comeback.
Geographically, the highest concentrations of child labor continue to be in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 87 million children: nearly two thirds of the global total, are affected.
Asia-Pacific has made the most dramatic reductions, nearly halving its prevalence since 2020.
Agriculture remains the dominant sector, employing about 61% of children in child labor globally.
Services (including domestic work, informal trade) contribute around 27%, with industry (construction, manufacturing, mining) accounting for 13%.
The Poverty Trap: Causes and Catalysts
Child labor and poverty exist in a self reinforcing loop:
# Economic necessity is the single largest driver: when families cannot reliably meet basic needs, children are sent to work to supplement income.
# Education loss occurs due to poverty.
Early engagement in work often prevents school attendance or leads to early dropout. Without education, these children often end up in low-wage, insecure, informal employment, and thus perpetuating poverty across generations.
# Hazardous conditions compound the harm to the working children. Those working in agriculture face pesticide exposure, extreme weather, tools and machinery without safety; in industry, hazardous work can include long hours, exposure to toxins, and unsafe working environments.
Global targets, such as eliminating child labor by 2025 under SDG 8.7are now clearly out of reach.
Key reasons may be explained in following manner:
# Insufficient social protection: Families near the margin have few buffers, no stable income, and unreliable public services.
# Uneven law enforcement: Labor laws often exist but are weakly enforced, especially in the informal economy and rural areas.
# Economic shocks and pandemics: COVID19, climate shocks, inflation have pushed vulnerable households to intensify child labor as coping mechanism.
# Cultural and gender norms: Girls often work in domestic or informal roles, sometimes unrecorded; gender bias can both exacerbate child labor and obscure its measurement.
Policy Levers to End Child Labor in Bangladesh: Breaking the Vicious Cycle
Eliminating child labor in Bangladesh requires a multi-dimensional, context-sensitive policy approach.
Despite progress, child labor remains deeply rooted in poverty, social norms, and informal economic structures.
The following policy levers, adapted to Bangladesh’s realities, offer promising pathways:
1. Strengthening Social Safety Nets
Expanding and ensuring effective implementation of social protection programs such as the Allowances for Poor Students, School Feeding Program, and Maternity Allowance Scheme can reduce economic pressure on poor families.
Conditional cash transfers tied to school attendance, especially in rural and urban slum areas, help keep children in classrooms instead of workplaces.
2. Enhancing Education Access and Quality
While primary school enrolment is high, dropout rates and learning outcomes remain a concern.
Investment is needed in teacher training, infrastructure, digital learning tools, and eliminating hidden costs (e.g., uniforms, exam fees, transport) that often push children, especially girls and working children out of school.
3. Labor Law Reforms and Enforcement
Although the Bangladesh Labor Act (2006) prohibits hazardous child labor, enforcement remains weak, especially in the informal economy where most child labor is concentrated (e.g., domestic work, agriculture, small workshops).
Strengthening labor inspections, increasing penalties, and formalizing sectors are key to regulation.
4. Economic Empowerment of Adults
Providing livelihood support, minimum wage enforcement, and access to microcredit or skills training for adults can reduce household dependency on child labor.
Supporting smallholder farmers, especially women-headed households, enhances income security and prevents child labor in agricultural work.
5. Gender-Sensitive Interventions
Girls in Bangladesh often face a dual burden: child labor and domestic responsibilities.
Programs must recognize and reduce unpaid care work, ensure gender-responsive schooling (e.g., separate toilets, menstrual hygiene), and protect girls from early marriage, which is often linked to child labor and dropout.
6. International Cooperation and Ethical Trade
Sustaining global support through ethical supply chain regulation, debt relief, and development assistance focused on education and child protection is critical.
Brands sourcing from Bangladesh must be held accountable for ensuring child-labor-free supply chains, particularly in RMG, leather, and informal sectors.
Thus, the eradication of child labor in Bangladesh suggests for formulation of holistic and inclusive policies and their proper enforcement at both national and local levels.
Local government bodies, community-based organizations, and development partners must collaborate to ensure that every child has the right to education, safety, and a future free from exploitation.
Child Labor: A Barrier to Bangladesh’s Future
Child labor in Bangladesh is not merely a moral lapse; it is a critical barrier to national progress and social justice.
Children forced out of school into labor are denied their fundamental rights and are locked into cycles of low productivity, poor health, and lifelong poverty.
This limits their individual potential and, collectively, undermines Bangladesh’s ambition to become an upper-middle-income country.
The country experiences a shrinking pool of skilled workers, weakened human capital, and growing social inequality. Innovation suffers, and the workforce remains trapped in low-value, informal sectors.
Moreover, child labor is interconnected with other systemic problems: early marriage, gender-based violence, malnutrition, and poor access to healthcare, particularly for girls. These consequences erode the very foundations of social cohesion, gender equity, and resilience that are vital for inclusive development.
Beyond Progress, Towards Justice in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has made visible strides in economic growth, poverty reduction, and expanding access to education. Yet, the persistence of child labor highlights a deep structural injustice that cannot be addressed by economic growth alone.
The visible economic growth in Bangladesh needs to be translated in real progress that must now go beyond statistics and tackle the root causes: poverty, weak enforcement of labor laws, gender inequality, and lack of social protection.
It requires a shift in perspective: to recognize that child labor is not an unfortunate necessity, but a violation of human rights and a brake on national development.
To build a just and inclusive Bangladesh, we must treat children not as economic assets but as rights-holders.
(The writer is working as a Teacher.)
