Zulfiqar Ali's presentation at UNICEF Innocenti's Inception Scoping Workshop for Evidence on Educational Strategies to Address Child Labour in India & Bangladesh, held in New Delhi in November 2019.

1. Scoping Evidence Gaps on Patterns & Trends
in Child Labour and Schooling & their
Intersections in Bangladesh
Zulfiqar Ali
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies
Inception Scoping Workshop: Evidence on Educational
Strategies to Address Child Labour in India & Bangladesh
13-14 Nov 2019, New Delhi, India

2. Why is child labour an issue?
Child labour is a violation of rights of children:
Children deprived of basic social services (health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education)
Deprivation limits opportunity to thrive with full potential, perpetuating cycle of poverty
Labour market keeps them out of school
Poses a big obstacle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal.

3. Government’s Commitment to Eliminate
Child Labour in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to protect and
promote:
• Right to compulsory and free education
• Right to be protected from hazardous work that interrupts education and development
• Right to an adequate standard of living
Also ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Worst Form of Child Labour
Convention (1999) to eliminate the worst forms of child labour
However, gaps exist in Bangladesh’s legal framework to adequately protect children.
Child labor remains a key concern.

4. Child Labour in Bangladesh: Evidence
from Population Census Data
Despite strong commitment to eliminate child labour, it remains a major problem
About 6% of children aged 10-14 years (1 million) engaged in labour but real figures may
be much higher
Child labour exists in almost all parts of the country, with the highest concentration in Dhaka
Chottogram, and Sylhet divisions
Proportion of child labour in Dhaka City Corporation (17%) higher than national level (6%)
Service sector employed highest proportion (41%), followed by agriculture (39%)
Proportionally, service sector is dominated by female child labour

5. Generally, household poverty is the main cause of child labour, but evidence in Bangladesh shows that
poverty not the only major cause.
Pull factors are driving force behind child labour. Richer households and Ready-Made Garments (RMG)
industries employ female child labour. Small engineering and other workshops employ male child labour.
People who offer jobs to children are creating the problem, creating a culture of exploitation.
Children engaged in child labour are deprived of adequate social protection programmes necessary for them
to thrive and reach their potential.
Child labour perpetuates poverty from one generation to the next. Failing to eliminate child labour will have
significant consequences for Bangladesh’s economic growth, political stability, and social cohesion.
Probable Causes for Child Labour

6. Child Labour in Bangladesh:
Regional Distribution

7. 7
Child Labour in Dhaka City

8. 8
Boy-Girl Distribution of
Child Labour in Dhaka

9. Need to improve and extend social protection that is sensitive to needs of children
Enhance enforcement of existing laws and create necessary legal measures for addressing child
labour in informal sector
Strengthen alliances with employers within formal and informal sectors to eliminate culture of
exploitation and ensure those who employ children comply with standard framework of child
labour elimination policy
Create mass awareness, promote collaboration with development partners, and use best
practices in eliminating child labour
Involve children engaged in labour, their parents and communities in implementing policies and
programmes that affect their lives
Implications for Policy

10. Child Labour in Bangladesh: Evidence
from Child Labour Survey
Description 2002-2003 2013
Working children age 5-17 years (million) 7.4 3.4
Child Labour age 5-17 years (million) 3.2 1.7
Children in hazardous work (million) 1.3 1.3
Child Labour as % of
Total Working Children 42.8 49.3
Total Child Population 7.5 4.3
Working children aged 5-17 by broad sector of employment (%)
Formal 7.1 5.2
Informal 92.9 94.9
Working Children aged 5-17 by broad industry (%)
Agriculture 56 36.9
Industry 17.9 32.5
Service 26.1 30.6

11. Children’s work by sector and activity
Sector/Industry Activity
Agriculture Harvesting and processing crops, including tobacco, raising poultry, grazing cattle, and harvesting tea
leaves. (BBS, 2015; ILO, 2016)
Fishing and drying and processing fish (BBS, 2015; McGoogan & Rashid, 2016)
Harvesting and processing shrimp (EJF, 2014)
Industry Quarrying and mining, including salt (BBS, 2015; ITUC, 2012)
Producing garments, textiles, and jute textiles (Leon, 2016)
Producing leather, leather goods, and footwear (Martha & Alam, 2017)
Manufacturing bricks, glass, hand-rolled cigarettes (bidis), matches, soap, furniture (steel), aluminum
products, and metal products (McGoogan & Rashid, 2016; BBS, 2015; Ahad, 2016; Ul-Karim, 2016)
Ship breaking, battery recycling (Ul-karim, 2016; Khan, 2014)
Construction, breaking bricks and stones (BBS, 2015; Manik, 2014)
Services Domestic work (Quattri & Watkins, 2016; FX, 2016; BSAF, 2016)
Pulling rickshaws and repairing automobiles (BBS, 2015; AA, 2017)
Working in tea shops and retail shops (BBS, 2015)
Worst Forms of Child
Labor
Drying of fish, production of bricks (McGoogan & Rashid, 2016; Manik, 2014)
Commercial sexual exploitation (US, 2018; BBC, 2018)
Forced domestic work (US, 2018; Doherty, 2018; Yu, 2017)
Use in illicit activities (smuggling, selling drugs) (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2016)
Forced begging (Rashid, 2015)

12. • Child Labour Surveys by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) with ILO support
• Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) by BBS and UNICEF
• Demographic and Health Surveys have adopted the MICS module on child labour
• Labour Force Surveys (LFS) by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
• Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
• Population Census
Available major data sources to investigate
issues around child labour in Bangladesh

13. Data on child labour and pattern of use not well documented or regularly available
Child labour surveys infrequent and issues around definitions used
Population Census (PC) and Labour Force Surveys (LFSs) in Bangladesh are main sources of
manpower statistics. Do not provide adequate information due to age category and cut-offs
MICS provides some useful information. Also possible to draw on from DHS and HIES
Lack of sufficiently disaggregated data to undertake analysis
Limitations on currently available data sets

14. Children in the worst forms of child labour are mostly hidden from public view and often
engaged in illicit activities. Difficult to capture this based on existing data and methods.
Very limited data on household chores, (distinct from domestic work in a third-party household)
No standard list of hazardous jobs in Bangladesh
Surveys are carried out infrequently. Difficult to observe the trend and changes in child labour
Children in labour move between work and sectors frequently
Official statistics do not cover gender dimension of worst forms of child labour. Girls particularly
vulnerable (commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work in third-party households, etc)
Further shortcomings of current data sets

15. Government has been implementing a number of programmes:
• Primary Education Stipend Programme (PESP)
• School Feeding Programme (SFP)
• Stipend Programme (FSP) for Secondary and Higher Secondary Student
• Reaching out of School Children (ROSC)
• Basic Education for Urban Working Children (BEUWC)
• Child Sensitive Social Protection intervention to eliminate child labour
ROSC and BEUWC are the two current programmes that directly address the children
engaged in work.
However, magnitude of child labour in Bangladesh poses a question about why child labour is
yet a key concern despite having relevant laws, policies, and programmes.
Addressing Child Labour through Schooling

16. Government need to combine quant-qual approach to investigate comprehensively
Disaggregated approach needed due to wide variations between regions, gender, and social
groups
Investigate how relevant and effective existing programmes, policies and laws are:
• Adequacy of existing programmes to address main causes of child labour
• Adequacy of existing social protection programmes to address economic vulnerabilities of
families
• Effectiveness of enforcement mechanism of the law in Bangladesh
What needs to happen?

17. Not only poverty or push factors, pull factors also important for child labour
Existing programmes do not adequately address main causes of child labour in Bangladesh
Existing social protection programmes not adequate to address economic vulnerabilities of
families with child labour
Enforcement mechanism of the existing laws are not that much effective in Bangladesh
Lack of visible actions for managing and reducing risks of child abuse by employers, particularly
those employed in households.
Probable new hypotheses