‘Four lakh children engaged in hazardous labour’

Advocate Salma Ali speaks at a meeting on 'How to reduce vulnerable child labour' at the National Press Club in the city yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

The meeting on 'How to reduce vulnerable child labour' was organised by two child organisations named CRC Shishu Sangathan and Ichchhe Media in co-operation with Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) at the National Press club in the city.

While presenting a concept paper, Monir, a child of CRC, said over four lakh children aged between 5 and 17 are engaged in 47 types of hazardous labour in the country.

He, on behalf of the CFC and Ichchey, appealed to the media to publish and telecast the child labour act in raising awareness among the people.

Nawazish Ali Khan, vice president (programme) of ATN Bangla, said the identification of child labour is a must as most people in our country mixed up child labour with child works.

Terming the child labour a 'social diseases,' he said, "If we can make the society literate, we can eliminate the disease from the society."

He sought help from people concerned saying, "If you arrange materials on child labour we will telecast it at free of cost."

He suggested the NGO's and organisations working with child labour to sit with the media regularly.

After the meeting, an open discussion was held where the children made an ardent appeal to the media to publish reports on child labour in their respective media regularly.

Executive Director of BNWLA Advocate Salma Ali, Advocate Tawhida Khandaker, Prof Latifa Akond, Selina Ahmed, and programme officer of Save the Children Sweden, Denmark also spoke.