Volume I Issue 2
ers, says Kabir, Bangladesh will inherit a generation of impover- ished, disturbed young adults. Hussain explains that
many of the child laborers are not even aware that they are being exploited in the eyes of the law. And older employees working alongside children do not know that their colleagues are being treated as slaves; even worse, if the older employees are familiar with the law, they are apathetic to the plight of the child laborers. “Given the lower literacy
rate of women, there is a huge concentration of women in the garment factories,” the professor of law explains. “Owners of the garment factories are tempted to hire girl workers because girls are less aware of their rights and most unlikely to get organized to protest deprivations.” “Despite the fact that all
these laws ban child labour, it is increasing in Bangladesh rather than declining,” states Hussain, explaining that a combination of socio-economic factors result in children being sent to work. He rattles off a list of factors that lead to child labour: extreme pov- erty, death or illness of a family member, psychological crises in a family, parental disinterest in the education of children, fail- ure in examinations, and many others. “Child labor cannot be
looked at in isolation from pre- vailing socio-economic condi-
tions of Bangladesh. Most work because their families are poor and their labour is necessary for their survival.” There is no doubt that Mi-
zan, the ten-year-old boy who sells betel leaf and snacks, and those like him, are working for their survival. “I have to think for myself because there is no- body to think for me,” he says. Their hand-to-mouth lifestyle forecloses the opportunity to go to school or learn a trade. But unlike the disillusioned parents of these young workers – who have spent too long bemoan- ing the trappings of poverty to dream of better days in better places – the child labourers of Bangladesh have big dreams. “Sometimes when a school
boy comes to my store, I think that if I were in his place, I could also do a lot of things,” says Mi- zan, not bitterly but with a hint of sadness. “I want to study for four or five years, then I could come back to Chittagong and start working in an office.” He dreams of helping his family members, and giving them new lives, too. He knows that one day, he will not be a child la- borer, but a fully-grown man ca- pable of working long hours and building a career. “I wouldn’t let my family live in a village or a slum. I would bring them to the city!”
Email Mowmita Basak Mow
mowmita.bm@
dispatchesinternational.org
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