Urban Child Labor in Bangladesh: Determinants and Its Possible Impacts on Health and Education

Abstract

(1) Background: A significant proportion of child laborers are compelled to work in exploitative environments, and experience both deteriorating health and financial loss. The present study sought to determine the factors affecting child labor and the characteristics of their working environment. (2) Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted with 80 child laborers aged 5 to 17 years. Alongside descriptive statistics, a newly devised technique known as the Influencing Causes Index (ICI) was administered and tested. (3) Results: The demographic findings reveal that most child laborers are young children (12–14 years) and 32.5% of child laborers have never attended school. The thorough assessment of determinants reflects that not only poverty but schooling expenses and a lack of access to opportunities in primary schools are also the top-ranked push factors to trigger children towards labor. Around 72.5% of children work for over 8 h a day. A significant proportion of participants received no leave, training, or access to hygiene facilities. The existing pattern of employment and working conditions resulted in musculoskeletal pain and dermatological infections among child laborers (p < 0.05). (4) Conclusions: This research suggests that income measures for households and an education program for both children and parents would expedite the abolition of child labor.

Hazardous Child Labor in Bangladesh: A Critical Evaluation of the Legal and Policy Framework Vis a Vis Practical Challenges

“…Child labor is a widely discussed issue in Bangladesh. Studies have investigated the factors, determinants and reasons for the high prevalence of child labor in Bangladesh (Tariquzzaman & Hossain, 2009;Mustafa, 2019;Hossain et al, 2019;Ahad et al, 2021;. However, recent reviews point out that very few of these studies have focused on wfcl in the country (Aked, 2021;Ali, 2021).…”

“…These working children primarily work with informal oral agreements with daily-based wages. Such arrangements lack provisions of leave and leisure during the job and sanitation and healthcare-related workplace facilities (Ahad et al, 2021). Author; also published in IDS ( 2020))…”

Forced Labour and access to Education of Rohingya Refugee Children in Bangladesh: Beyond a Humanitarian Crisis

“…Legal provisions under Child Labour Act (Amendment) 2018 prohibit the employment of a child below 14 years of age and put restrictive policies on employing children between the ages of 14 and 18 (Beaubien 2016;Hasan 2018). However, since most of the working children sell their labour in informal sectors as 3 welders, assistants of vehicle drivers, in plastic and chemical factories, bidi factories, brick kilns, stone crushing, battery recharging, waste removal, tanneries, the matchbox and garment factories, formal institutions fail to tackle and monitor the issue (Ahad et al 2021;New Age 2018). An enormous number of girls also work as domestic helps across the country (Jensen 2017).…”

Are Working Children in Developing Countries Hidden Victims of Pandemics?

“…As a consequence, minors are at higher risk of sexual exploitation, trafficking and victimization (Scanlon et al 2002;Edmonds and Pavcnik 2005;Chaudhuri and Dwibedi 2016;Greenbaum and Bodrick 2017;Ahad et al 2021), increased rates of mortality and occupational injuries (Roggero et al 2007;Schlick et al 2014;Shendell et al 2016). In several developing countries working children drop out of school (Shafiq 2007;Huisman and Smits 2015) or show poor academic performance (Psacharopoulos 1997;Holgado et al 2014;Putnick and Bornstein 2015;Kumar and Saqib 2017).…”