Dispatches International
is inadequate for the protection of these young workers. Zakir Hussain, the Dean of the Fac- ulty of Law at the University of Chittagong, is a member of Ban- gladesh Judicial Service Com- mission and familiar with the is- sue of child labor. “Child labor has been recognized as a global problem,” he says. “But there is no uniform legal or non-legal definition of child labor.” “This non-agreement aris-
es mainly from the absence of consistent pattern of definition of child at national and interna- tional levels,” explains Hussain. “The age of a person is crucially important in the determination of child labor. According to the international standard, a person under the age of 18 is consid- ered a child.” He says that the laws of Bangladesh have not fol- lowed a consistent pattern in the definition of a child. “For example, the Labor Act
of 2006 has defined a child as a person who has not past the age of 15 years, while the Children Act of 1974 has defined child as a person who has not completed 16 years,” Hussain offers by way of comparison. “Under the Na- tional Children Policy of Bangla- desh, a child is a person under the age of 14 through the Con- tract Act of 1872, but the Major- ity Act defines it as less than 18 years of age.” According to one child la-
bor law in Bangladesh, children and adolescents are only allowed
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to work a maximum of 5 hours a day and only between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. The penalty for violating this act is a fine of $1,000 BDT, or $14 USD. The problem is that these laws are rarely – if ever – enforced. “Bangladesh,” summarizes Hus- sain, “has failed to internalize the international standards. There is a dearth of adequate ju- risprudence on this matter.” Sayed Mohammad Sajjad
Kabir, a psychologist and pro- fessor at the University of Chit- tagong, concurs with the senti- ments of Hussain. He says that there are too few laws protect- ing children as laborers, but that progress is being made. When the children are not adequately protected by their parents or the government, the impact on their self-esteem and mindset is disastrous. Kabir’s academic focus is on the mental trauma endured by slum children who work in Chittagong. “The environment of the
workplace, the behaviour of col- leagues, and financial security can all have an impact on the psy- chology of a child,” says Kabir. When slum children go through different traumatic experiences, they cease acting like children and turn into young adults. But their maturity is not absolute; many end up getting involved with criminals, taking drugs, or otherwise falling through the cracks of society. Without fur- ther protection for child labor-
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