Bangladesh Child Labour Remains Social Norm
ANALYSIS, 13 Aug 2012
I met Shubbo for the first time when he was nine years old, welding car parts in a dirty workshop in Dhaka.
The fact that he was so young and skinny, carrying parts that weighed more than he did, didn’t shock anyone. In fact, the bosses were happy to sip tea whilst Shubbo carried out the most demanding tasks.
Two years on nothing has changed. Except that Bangladesh is a wealthier country, and the economy is booming.
When I went to back to the workshop to looking for Shubbo, I was expecting him to have moved on to a better job, or maybe even to be in school. I was wrong.
Shubbo’s situation had not changed or improved whatsoever. In his flip-flops with no gloves or mask, he welds away engine parts in the same dirty noisy workshop.
True expert
In the book Outliers, the author Malcolm Gladwell says to become a true expert in your field and experience success you must spend 10,000 hours perfecting your skill.
Working 16 hour shifts, 7 days a week, at age 11, Shubbo will soon have completed his 10,000 hours.
By the time he is a teenager, he will most certainly be an expert at what he does, but will he reap any benefits from this expertise; will he experience success?
He earns $18 a month – half the minimum wage for an adult. Meager as it is, it still represents a solid contribution to his family’s income, and one they can’t go without.
When I asked his boss why he is paying the children who work for him half the adult wage despite the fact that they often do more work than adults, he simply replied, “because I can”.
Technically illegal
Child labour is technically illegal but extremely widespread. Driven by poverty, it is often parents who are forced to push their children into work at an early age.
Shubbo’s mother doesn’t work; she says she is too busy with the care of the home and other young children. His father drives a cycle rickshaw, and Shubbo’s wage helps put food on the table.
On the whole, Bangladeshis are unmoved by children working; whether rich or poor, child labour is a social norm to such an extent that it is invisible.
On countless occasions I have seen a child serve another child and no one seems to notice the bizarre nature of the interaction; a peanut vendor and his customer or a young maid and the child that she must clean up after.
Mannerisms of adults
These working children are treated just as adults, and in turn, they themselves behave and have taken on all the mannerisms of adults.
I have been to countless aid seminars where wealthy Bangladeshis and foreigners celebrate the plight to emancipate children. But how many of them employ children? Or get their car fixed by children working like Shubbo.
I can tell you; it is much more than you would think.
According UNICEF an estimated 215 million children in the world are working, half of them in hazardous jobs. They live in the third world, in countries like Bangladesh.
_______________________
Nicolas Haque is an Al Jazeera correspondent working out of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Go to Original – aljazeera.com
DISCLAIMER: The statements, views and opinions expressed in pieces republished here are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of TMS. In accordance with title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. TMS has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is TMS endorsed or sponsored by the originator. “GO TO ORIGINAL” links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the “GO TO ORIGINAL” links. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Bangladesh ratified three main international human rights treaties on the child as follows:
The “Convention on the Rights of the Child” on 3 August 1990; the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Right of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts” on 6 September 2000; and the “Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” on 12 March 2001. Regarding the above article, the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” and the “Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” are related.
No legal instruments are effective if they are not complied with.
“Child labor,” as described in the article above, indicates the extreme poverty of the social environment of these children concerned and the lack of respect of our both present and (near) future. For more understanding of this issue, visit: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/wdacl/english.htm and http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/youth/issues/index.php?type=childlabour&gclid=CO-Q_pfp8LECFcQXzQod2WgAAg