NHRC chief for working together to eradicate child labour

Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Dr. Kamal Uddin Ahmed on Monday urged all concerned to work together to eradicate all forms of child labour.

Addressing a dialogue as the chief guest on "Progress and legal aspects of inclusion of domestic workers in the list of vulnerable child labour," he emphasised the need to work towards ending child labour and ensuring the human dignity of children. 

He mentioned that 40 per cent of children in the country are victims of abuse. The children employed in domestic work are to face various forms of exploitation, including physical abuse whereas child labour is unacceptable anywhere in the world.

Action for Social Development (ASD), Shapla Neer, and Educo-Bangladesh, all the non-government organisations, organised the dialogue at NHRC conference room with ASD executive director MA Karim in the chair.

Secretary of NHRC Narayan Chandra Sarkar, members- Selim Reza and Robiul Islam, Country Director of Shapla Neer Tomko Uchiyama, President of the Child Rights Forum Mahbubul Haque, Secretary of the Girls' Child Advocacy Forum  Nasima Akhtar Joli, and Child Protection Specialist from UNICEF Shabnaz Jaherin, among others, took part in the discussion.

The NHRC chief stated that all hazardous child labour would be eliminated by 2025. For this purpose, child labour needs to be included in the list of prohibited activities, and child protection policies must be properly implemented. 

He however said there are lacking of accurate statistics regarding child labour. Despite informing the government about these discrepancies, no action has been taken. 

Kamal Uddin observed that working together would make it easier to protect children's rights. He said the Human Rights Commission is going forward to address child labour actively and with a plan of action.

The dialogue was informed that according to the list prepared in 2013 in line with the National Child Labour Elimination Policy, there are 38 hazardous tasks for children in the country. Five additional tasks have recently been added to the list but domestic work has not been included as a hazardous activity yet. 

However, national and international child rights organizations, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, are calling for the inclusion of domestic work as hazardous work for children.

MA Karim called upon the National Human Rights Commission to provide legal protection to millions of child domestic workers.

He said despite the existence of child labour laws, they are not effectively implemented. 

The ASD chief called upon the government to take short-term and long-term action plans to safeguard the rights of children.