Nowreen Yasmin'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 the linkages between internal migration,
child labour & schooling in Bangladesh
Nowreen Yasmin
Noakhali Science and Technology University
Inception Scoping Workshop: Evidence on Educational
Strategies to Address Child Labour in India & Bangladesh
13-14 Nov 2019, New Delhi, India

2. Scoping linkages between internal migration,
child labour & schooling in Bangladesh
What is the extent and determinants of migrant child labour within Bangladesh, by age,
gender, social grouping and employment sector?
What are the links between migration, child labour and schooling?
What policy considerations are in place (domestic and international) to address the
employment and educational needs of migrant children? What are the gaps?
What interventions effectively address the employment and education needs of migrant
children? What are the gaps?

3. Migrant Child: Missing Discourse within
Internal Migration Scenario
Location , frequency , and household or individual migration (Marshall & Rahman, 2009)
Types of Migration
• Two-third of the internal migration is rural to urban migration
• Thirty fold increase in urban population and four fold increase in rural population
• Each year between 300,000 and 400,000 people migrate from rural to urban areas– the majority of them are poor
Demographic transition, Economic expansion and environmental challenges (Marshall & Rahman,
2009; Ashraf, 2003)Determinant of Migration
• Urbanization rate has been quoted at 3.03% over the period from 1975 to 2009
• Shift from agricultural to industrial production (the former down from 32% to 19% and latter up from 21% to 28% as a share of GDP
between 1980 and 2010
• Economic expansion at individual level: Push and pull factor
• Environmental challenge : Northern region and Coastal area
BBS, 2014
Rise in Urban & Slum Population
• Urban population growth 6% whereas national growth 2.2%
• The slum population in Bangladesh has increased by 60% in last two decades (2.23 million slum dwellers in 13,935 slums all over
the country

4. Major Districts of Origin of Slum Dwellers by
City Corporation ( CUS, 2006)

5. Child Migration: Age, Gender & Employment
Types of Child migration:
• With family/parents or Unaccompanied
• Forced or willingly
• Seasonal/ Permanent
Age distribution of child migrant (which age group of children are migrating unaccompanied
more?)
Gender distribution of migrant child labour (Is there any difference by sector?)
Child Migration: Drivers and Consequences
The distribution of hazardous/ child labour across country and link with migration pattern

6. Sector Wise Tracking of Migrant Child Labour:
Child Domestic Workers (CDWs)
Whether allow to visit home: 91.3% (Unaccompanied)
According to the ILO (2006) survey results, young children
migrate from all districts across the country to work as CDWs.
78% girls
6% of CDWs have age below 8 years, 26% below 11 years, 74%
12-17 years
More than 50% of CDWs are coming from 15 districts viz.,
Barisal, Chittagong, Bhola, Mymenshingh, Comilla, Rajshahi,
Sunammgonj, B. Baria , Chandpur, Hobigonj, Khulna,
Kishoreganj, Naogoan, Rangpur, and Sylhet division.
Reasons behind
migration as CDWs
%
Poverty/Hunger 66
Came to Earn 38
Parent’s sent away 37
A relative 11
No one to take care 8

7. Concentration of Migrant CDWs Across Division
80
394 474
71
544 615
52
393 445
30
319 349
55
657 712
45
374 419 333
2681
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
All
Male
Female
All
Male
Female
All
Male
Female
All
Male
Female
All
Male
Female
Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Sylhet All
Percentage of migrated CDWs by Division (ILO, 2006)

8. Child Labour & Education (Quattari & Watkins)
Out of School Children and Child Labour (A total of
over 4.5 million in the 7-14 years age group in
Bangladesh are out of school)
Dropped out Children and Child Labour
Impact of child work and child labour on education
Child labour and learning outcome
Vulnerability at both end by age and gender
Table: Education and employment status by age cohort:
children aged 6–10 and 11–14 (ODI 2016)

9. CWES slum locations
& garment & apparel
factories in Dhaka

10. Migration & Schooling trait of children from
slum areas in Bangladesh
The study was an effort to evaluate the outcome of one school program implemented by
BRAC Education Program aiming to improve the educational achievement status of children
in urban slum areas of Bangladesh (Yasmin, Nath and Hossain, 2017):
• Completing the primary cycle was far lower: Average 19.32 students of slum schools
have appeared in primary completion examination (PECE) in 2016 whereas the mean
number of enrolled students in grade one was 30.35 in 2013.
• Overall, 57.5% of the students who admitted in those BRAC slum school in 2013
migrated before completing the full course of primary education. More than 60% of the
migrated students left at grade II, III and IV.

11. Potential Determinants of Migrant Child Labour?
Before
• Age, Gender, position
among siblings (ILO,2006)
• Parent’s income,
occupation,& education
(ILO,2006)
• Children’s choice (Heissler)
Migration
• Unaccompanied or With
family
• Seasonal or permanent
• Rural-Urban, Urban-Urban
(Yasmin, Nath and
Hossain, 2017)
After
• Parental aspiration to
education
• Educational opportunity at
the destination
(Cameron,2016)

12. Case 1
Ramjan Ali (Charkhoir village, Rajarhat union ,Kurigram, Rajshahi division ), a 37 years old farmer, was
economically solvent. He had a family consisting of nine members including his parents, wife, three daughters and
two sons. He had no want. He could maintain his family properly with what he could earn. Manga took place thrice
at a stretch. His cultivable land was parched and he got no crop. Besides this he had no opportunity to engage
himself in other profession in order to earn his living. Gradually all his money and wealth began to decrease. Soon
one day he was in such a situation that he and his family members had to be half fed. He lost everything in his
house and had nothing to feed his children. At one point he and his family members had to starve for three days
continuously.
Not only Ramjan Ali but also other farmers face the same situation. In this condition, a person advised him to go to
the city so that he could at least feed his children with some kind of food. But at first he did not agree to this
proposal and did not want to leave his ancestors’ dwelling place. But when his little daughter died of starvation, he
with other villagers, decided to migrate to the city. At the beginning he came with his two sons in quest for work. He
thought that if he could improve his condition, he would return to his village. Coming to the city he, at first, did the
work of a porter. After that he was pilling rickshaw. The two boys worked in hotels. They used to go home once in a
week. They found that they could not improve their lot. But every year Manga came to them in their life and made
them lose everything. At last he left his home and came to the town with his family.

13. Asiya’s mother left her village with Asiyaand her elder sister after she had a divorce with her
first husband. That time Asiya was two years old when they came to the biggest slum of
Dhaka (Karail). Her mother managed to get a job as cleaner in City corporation and got
married again (a rickshaw puller).
Asiya started studying in one of the BRAC primary schools in that slum at the age of seven.
However, when she was in grade four , her mother became sick and as a replacement
Asiya started working (From 5 am to 9 am). During our study Asiya was both working and
studying and completed grade V being that situation. The moment when we met Asiya
during our study neither her mother or her step father were in any kind of regular earning
involvement.
Case 2

14. Categories of children by their status of
migration, education & labour involvement
Migration
with
family
Unaccompanied
or independent
migration
Left
behind by
migrated
parents
Non migrant, studying & no
involvement with child labour √
Migrated, Studying & no labour √ √
Working, Studying & not
migrated
√
Migrated, join labour force &
studying
√ √ √
Migrated, joined labour force &
not studying
√ √
Non-migrant, out of school,
child labour
√
Migrant but no record of
working & studying
√ √

15. What policy considerations are in place (domestic and
international) to address the employment and educational
needs of migrant children? What are the gaps?
What interventions effectively address the employment and
education needs of migrant children? What are the gaps?
“There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are
only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”