Like many other countries of South Asia, child labour
persists in Bangladesh. A child has to work for his livelihood when the child
is supposed to go to school for study or play with friends. The poor economic condition
is the first and foremost reason for child labour in Bangladesh. It is not
possible for the parents of a poor family to bear the cost of their children’s
education after arranging their food. As a result,
the guardians of these children lose interest of sending
their children to school. In this circumstance, their father or mother thinks
that it would be beneficial for them if their children engage in any occupation
and earn bread for the family. Besides, the employer also gets interest in
engaging children in work as it is lucrative for them to engage the child in
work by
spending less money and to exploit child labour for long
hour than the adult. Poor
parents consider education as non-profitable activity. They
do not have patience and
money to bear the cost of education of their children for 15
to 16 years. The child labour
is increasing day by day as a result of the indifferent
attitude of parents. In the urban life,
the dependence on the domestic servants for all domestic
works is also liable for the
quick increase of child labour.
The
National Laws and International Conventions Ratified by Bangladesh on
Prevention
of Child Labour
The
Childern’s Rights in the Constitution of Bangladesh: The
constitution of
Bangladesh has recognized the
fundamental rights of all citizens including children. The
constitution on its part
‘Fundamental Principles of State policy’ has emphasized on
taking steps for compulsory
primary education for all children and special measures for
physically handicapped and
mentally disabled children.
According to ‘The Bangladesh
Labour Act, 2006’, the minimum age of children and
adolescent is ascertained 14
years and 14 to 18 years. This Act also mentions that to
engage any child in any work
below 14 years of age is strongly prohibited, and the
parents of that child can not
enter into any agreement to engage that child in any work.
An adolescent can be engaged in
work only if his employer, at his own costs, gets a
fitness certificate of that
adolescent from a registered physician. The normal working
hour of an adolescent is
ascertained 5 hours daily. But, he cannot be allowed to work
from 7 pm to 7 am. An adolescent
cannot be allowed to do any risky or dangerous job.
Besides, this Act also provides
that a child of 12 years of age can only be allowed to do a
light type of job at night in
which there is no possibility of doing any harm to him or
disrupts his education. In order
to stop child labour, ‘The National Child Labour Prevention Policy-2010’ has
determined some specific goals. It talks of taking some short term and long
term strategic measures to prevent risky child labour from all institutional and
non-institutional sectors and to eradicate all kinds of child labour.
The United
Nations Convention on Child Rights: The convention of 1989 by the
United Nations has clearly cited
its commitments on matters related to child labour. The
convention has said that member
states realising their local situation, must decide
appropriate terms and conditions
on the working hour, appointment, age of child labour,
etc. In addition, this
convention provides commitment to child security, compulsory
primary education, etc. which
indirectly will help eradicating child labour. Bangladesh
has ratified this convention in
1990.
Juvenile
Delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is a
fearful social problem for every society. The existence of this
problem in our society and all
around the world persists in a significant rate. Juveniles
become delinquent due to bad
social environment and deprivation of fundamental rights;
the juvenile gets associated
with evil company, becomes victim of trafficking, and
becomes the target of abuse in
different forms.
Children are the precious wealth
of the nation. So, all required steps should be taken for
their development and for giving
them equal facilities. By this, they will be able to have
physical and mental fitness,
morally enriched, and also achieves abitilies to work for the
society. Deprived children and
underprivileged adolescents easily get involved with
crime. They do not care anybody;
they become associated with diligence, spirit, physical
strength and power to sustain
and also because of their daring attitude, they become
associated with delinquency and
in severe fighting. Juveniles of urban slums get more
involved in delinquency because
of poverty, deprivation from educational opportunity,
irresponsible attitude and lack
of control of their parents. Besides, adolescents also get
engaged in such crimes due to
loneliness in cities, aloofness from their parents due to
remaining busy, intrusion of bad
culture through internet and satellite chanels and many
other reasons. Juvenile
delinquency can be prevented by maintaining healthy family
environment, providing religious
and moral education in home and in school, taking
activities for good entertainment,
preventing bad culture, etc. Again, those who are
already engaged in crimes,
attempts can be taken to rectify their character and to bring
them back into right path
through the help of Juvenile court, Juvenile custody, Juveniles
Correction Centre, etc.
The
Suppression of Juvenile Delinquency Act and its Trial System: The purpose of
trial system for Juvenile
delinquents is not to punish the delinquent juvenile; rather
realising their misdeals, they
should get opportunity for correction.
Those who
are Juvenile Delinquents: According to ‘The United Nations Convention
on Child Rights’, all persons
below 18 years of age are treated as children. Bangladesh
has approved this convention in
1989. There are different laws in Bangladesh that define
the word ‘Child’. According to
the definition given in ‘Bangladesh Children Act, 1974,’
every person under 16 years of
age is child.
The Law on
Juvenile Delinquency: ‘The Children Act, 1974’ in Bangladesh is
considered the basic law for the
trial of Juvenile
delinquency. This Act directs to
constitute a court for trial
of Juvenile delinquency, provide
separate custody or lock
up for them and to take
sufficient measure for their
correction.
Besides, this Act also directs
to constitution a child court comprising of a magistrate of
1st class and other officers which
will sit at least 2 to 3 time or more in each month.
This act also says that custody
for Juveniles should be different from the usual custody.
Often, the adolescents are
required to be detained for the investigation of the crime,
judicial hearing and disposal.
During this time, the investigating officer will observe the
detained adolescent from
different perspective and find out the reason of committing the
crime by analysing the character
of the adolescent. The investigating officers will submit
report to the court according to
their analysis, observation and judgment and also
through the information provided
by the parents of the victim. The adolescent in the
custody is given scope to
participate in different sports and activities for rectification.
The
Correction of the Adolescent: The law directs to take necessary
measure for the
correction of adolescents.
According to the law, accused and convicted juveniles who
need formal correction have to
be sent to the correction centre.
218 Bangladesh and Global
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