Today’s children are the future of tomorrow. The child who is in the care of his parents today is the only refuge of the elderly parents one day. বাংলায় পড়ুন
The developed world is different. In the developed world, the state bears all the responsibilities, from the maintenance of elderly parents to medical care. In our country, that system has not been developed yet, but it will not be developed in the future. That cannot be said, because the world is moving forward, with the joint family breaking up into smaller families, the family bonds are gradually breaking up and falling apart. Even then, the good news is that Bangladesh is the happiest country in the world as a country of family ties, according to an international survey.
There are still many joint families in Bangladesh, and the bond of the joint family is unbroken, as a result of which the family love is immense. And this is why Bangladesh is a country of strong family ties. A friend of mine moved to Australia from an international service organization a few years ago. At the end of the conference, he visited a nursing home to see the country’s self-service humanitarian activities. The type of service in Australia is a bit different, as a poor old couple was seen watching black-and-white television at home.
What is child labor? And why?
Anyway, when the friend goes to the old age home, you can see an old man about 60 years old, rolling around in ecstasy. After trying for a long time, you can know why the old man is so happy? The old man’s only son lives in another province of the same country, the old man’s son is coming to see the old man after about two years, and the old man is overjoyed to hear the news, whereas most of the families in our country are not just old parents, old grandparents, widowed sisters, I was talking about child labor, living in a family without eating from a little till my uncle. When it comes to child labor, we need to have a basic knowledge of who the child is in the eyes of the law. According to the provisions of the Children’s Act of 1974, a boy or a girl under the age of 14 was considered a minor or a child. According to the provisions of the GUARDIAN AND WARDS ACT of 1890, any boy under the age of 21 and any girl under the age of 18 is a minor.
Why stop child labor?
And minors are considered as children. No child can be made to work as a laborer. Any such act would be considered a punishable offense. Child labor is also prohibited under International Labor Organization (ILO) rules. The International Labor Organization’s charter treats any worker under the age of 14 as a child laborer. And making child laborers work is against the labor law. Interestingly, apart from developing countries like Bangladesh and underdeveloped countries of the world, in many developed countries children are employed as laborers in hazardous work. At an ILO conference, it was said that half of the world’s 28 largest companies were using children for hazardous work, such as the extraction of nickel. According to a statistic, there are about 152 million child laborers in the world at present, out of which 25 million children are being forced to do dangerous work. According to a report by the British human rights organization Amnesty International, Time to Recharge, 26 of the world’s largest companies are used to extract nickel from children.
Damage due to child labor
They also say that many risky jobs are done by those child laborers which are harmful to the health of children. According to a grim statistic, about 4.6 million child laborers are engaged in various hazardous activities in Bangladesh. Child laborers are being used in many hazardous jobs starting from shipbreaking. Of these, 73% of child laborers are doing hazardous work in rural areas and 18% of child laborers are doing hazardous work with various mills in urban areas. Child laborers in Bangladesh join the work as laborers due to lack of family and lack of education and awareness. These child laborers often die while doing risky work.
A few days ago some school-going children in Dhaka took work in a factory as the school was closed due to corona. Unfortunately, the fire at that factory killed the school-going children along with other workers, which is very sad. Good citizens are needed to build a happy and prosperous nation, and today’s children are good citizens of tomorrow. Therefore, it is necessary to stop child labor officially and make children school-oriented. Let’s build the children the way we need to build them to build a happy and prosperous nation in the future. And let this promise of today be for all government and non-government.
Author: Ed. Md. Mozammel Haque, Lawyer, Bogra.