Child labor is work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated.

Ages 5-11: At least one hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.

Ages 12-14: At least 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.

Ages 15-17: At least 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labourBangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Report on National Child

Labour Survey, 2002-2003

Social norms and economic realities mean that child labor is widely accepted and very common in Bangladesh.

Among children aged 5-14, about five million, are economically active.

According to the International Labor Organization definition, there are about 3.2 million child laborers' in Bangladesh.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labourBangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Report on National Child

Labour Survey, 2002-2003

Child labor is a visible part of everyday life in Bangladesh: young children serve at roadside tea stalls, and weave

between cars selling goods to motorists. On average, children work 28 hours a week and earn 222

taka (3.3 USD) a week. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed

concern in 2009 that many Bangladeshi children continue to work in five of the worst forms of child labor, namely welding, auto workshops, road transport, battery recharging and tobacco factories.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labour

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Report on National Child Labour Survey, 2002-2003

Bangladesh enacted the Labor Act in 2006, which includes a chapter on child labor.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment has recently adopted a National Child Labor Elimination Policy 2010, which provides a framework to eradicate all forms of child labor by 2015.

According to the new National Education Policy, education is free and compulsory up to grade eight, however it is estimated that more than one million children have never been to school.

About half of all child laborers' do not attend school at all, and among child domestic workers only 11 per cent attend school .

As a result, working children get stuck in low paying, low-skilled jobs, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labourILO, Baseline Survey on Child Domestic Labour in Bangladesh,

2006

Age group

Bangladesh Urban RuralBoth sexes Male Female

Both sexes Male Female

Both sexes Male Female

2002-03 NCLS Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100Can read and write a letter (Literate) 52.1 55.9 48.1 63.3 66.9 59.5 48.6 52.5 44.5Can notread and write a letter (illiterate) 47.9 44.1 51.9 36.7 33.1 40.5 51.4 47.5 55.52001 Pop. Census 42.5 46.4 38.3 57.3 61.8 52 37.9 41.3 34.4

One-quarter of all working children reported that they had been physically punished at their workplaces, according to a 2008 children's opinion pol.

These children participate in jobs that have been identified by the ILO to expose children to hazards including: physical, psychological or sexual abuse; excessive work hours; an unhealthy environment.

3,400 children work in brick/ stone breaking for the construction industry . Other child workers in hazardous jobs include 123,000 children working as rickshaw pullers, 153,000 children working in restaurants or tea stalls, and 56,000 working in carpentry.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labourILO and BBS, Baseline Survey for Determining Hazardous Child

Labor Sectors in Bangladesh, 2005.

Working children often live away from their families in situations where they are exposed to violence, abuse and economic exploitation .

A rapid assessment of commercially sexually exploited children showed that half worked in other sectors before being lured into sex work .

The majority are depressed and three-quarters of the child sex workers were ill in the three months before the rapid assessment survey, many with sexually transmitted diseases.

Source: www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labourUNICEF Bangladesh and INCIDIN, Rapid Assessment: Commercial

Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Bangladesh, 2008

www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_labour www.ilo.org ( International labour Organization)