The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh Masud Ali The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNICEF. Any part of this publication may be freely reproduced if accompanied by the following citation: Ali (2021). The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh. Compendium Paper. UNICEF Innocenti, Florence, Italy.
Correspondence should be addressed to: [email protected].
Cover image: UNICEF/UNI123128/Khan
© 2021
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
Abstract Over the 10-year period, the number of This paper demonstrates the challenges of children engaged in hazardous labour in defining the worst forms of child labour Bangladesh decreased by just 0.01 million, (WFCL) in legal instruments in Bangladesh – from 1.29 million to 1.28 million. in particular, the consequences of The surveys examined data relating to compartmentalizing WFCL and hazardous ‘working children’, ‘child labour’ and child labour in policy, legal and institutional ‘hazardous child labour’. They made no responses. The paper presents an overview reference to the term ‘worst forms of child on the spectrum of WFCL, as reflected in the labour’ (WFCL). existing knowledge base, and identifies the barriers in relation to the formal recognition This paper takes a fresh look at the available of some sectors under the category of WFCL. data around child labour in Bangladesh and It shows how the definitional limitations and attempts to explain how existing definitions institutional boundaries work as barriers in affect our understanding of the prevalence of defining the scope of survey and research, WFCL. It also examines how the concepts are which results in some of the critical sectors reinforced in governance through policy and and manifestations of WFCL being excluded legal instruments. The paper has three broad from scrutiny. The paper further questions the objectives: appropriateness of placing the issue of WFCL • to present and analyse the existing data within the scope of labour governance rather (as presented in national surveys) on than child rights governance. It goes on to hidden child labour and WFCL; argue in favour of a policy and legal regime • to analyse the limitations of policy and that considers WFCL both as an area for legal definitions in setting the scope and knowledge building and improved parameters of planning and knowledge governance. building processes around WFCL; and • to introduce an alternative conceptual 1. Introduction framework to increase understanding of The last two National Child Labour Surveys in WFCL and enable a more consistent and Bangladesh show significant improvements robust approach to addressing it. in the child labour situation in the country – notably the decline in the absolute numbers 2. The prevalence and characteristics of WFCL of ‘working children’ and ‘child labour’. The in Bangladesh definitions of these terms are discussed This section summarizes the data presented further below. in the last National Child Labour Survey of However, it is also important to note an area Bangladesh, carried out in 2013 (BBS, 2015), that saw little progress between these two and the previous survey, from 2002/03 (BBS, surveys: the area of ‘hazardous child labour’. 2003), to provide an indication of the
1
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali prevalence of hazardous child labour in rural 6–11-year-olds engaged in hazardous and urban settings. It looks at what the data labour. show about the demographic composition of • Of all children engaged in hazardous the children engaged in hazardous labour and labour, 18.2 per cent work in agriculture. reveals the main determinants of the hidden However, these findings are determined by and WFCL. the way the survey is compiled and the data Comparison of the two consecutive surveys are categorized. reveals that the total number of children recorded as being engaged in hazardous child The survey includes 38 sectors/tasks that are labour decreased marginally. listed by the government as ‘hazardous for children’. Any child working in these Table 1: Distribution of children in hazardous work 2002–2003 and 2013 sectors/tasks is considered to be engaging in
2002–2003 2013 hazardous child labour. In addition, it uses a Male Female Total Male Female Total series of additional criteria to identify harmful Children in hazardous 1,172 120 1,291 772 508 1,280 child labour in non-hazardous sectors: work (’000) • Where any child aged 5–17 is working Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), National Child Labour Survey 2002–2003, BBS, Dhaka, more than 42 hours a week, it is 2003; BBS, National Child Labour Survey 2013, BBS, Dhaka, 2015. considered ‘hazardous child labour’.
While the number of boys employed in • Where any child up to the age of 11 is hazardous work decreased by 34 per cent working, it is considered ‘child labour’. over the decade, the number of girls • Where any child aged 12–17 is working increased by over a factor of four. up to 42 hours a week in non-hazardous activities, it is considered ‘child work’, i.e. The survey does not directly reveal the permissible work. sectors in which the employment of children in hazardous activities has increased (BBS, The findings of the 2013 survey (BBS, 2015) 2015). However, it does show the settings reveal: where hazardous child labour is most • Of the 1.28 million children engaged in commonly found. hazardous child labour, only 0.26 million • About 0.5 million children were recorded work in the listed hazardous sectors. as being engaged in hazardous labour in • As many as 1.1 million children work offices, workshops, factories and shops. more than 42 hours each week. This This amounts to 42.8 per cent of the total accounts for 64.9 per cent of the total number of children engaged in number of children engaged in child hazardous labour. labour (1.7 million). • In the 12–13 age group, 70.3 per cent of • Of those engaged in hazardous child children engaged in hazardous labour labour: work in this sector, as do 46.2 per cent of
2
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
o 1.21 million are aged 14–17; 38,766 among the girls. The rates of exposure to are aged 12–13; and 32,808 are aged dust, fumes, noise and vibration across 6–11. all working children are highest in city o 88.7 per cent of those in the 14–17 age corporation areas (31.8 per cent). group work for at least 42 hours each • 7.9 per cent of male working children are week. The corresponding percentage required to use dangerous tools, is 31.7 per cent in the 12–13 age compared with 9.7 of female working group and 4.2 per cent in the 6–11 age children. Again, this is substantially group. higher across all working children in city o 77 per cent of those in city corporation areas (23.1 per cent) than corporation areas work for more than rural (6.1 per cent) and other urban areas 42 hours each week, compared with (8.7 per cent). 64.1 per cent in rural areas and 57.7 The fact that only a small proportion of those per cent in other urban areas. This involved in hazardous child labour are indicates greater vulnerability of engaged in registered hazardous sectors is a children to hazardous work in the city major limitation of current policy and child corporation areas. protection law. Effectively, over a million o The overwhelming majority are children identified in the National Child employed full time. Labour Survey are invisible to the formal Male and female working children are authorities. exposed to different hazards: This is not a problem unique to Bangladesh. • 0.63 million male working children work According to the International Labour for more than 42 hours each week, as do Organization (ILO), hazardous child labour is 0.47 million female working children. often hidden (ILO, 2018). The following table • 17.9 per cent of male working children includes common examples of child labour are exposed to dust, fumes, noise and that is often hidden behind closed doors, vibration, compared with 15.1 per cent unseen or ignored.
Table 2: Visible and hidden forms of child labour Spread Visible child labour Hidden child labour Concentrated Work in street-based workshops; street Agricultural work in plantations; factory vending; tourist aides/souvenir selling; work; cleaning; scavenging (at night or from restaurant serving; construction; street-based the dump); offshore fishing (platforms and car washing/watching ships); work in tanneries; work in cemeteries; dishwashing in restaurants Dispersed Family agricultural work; livestock herding; Domestic work; artisanal mining; brick kiln lake/river fishing; water and wood gathering; work; home-based production; household work of porter/carrying grocery bags; chores in own home that are hazardous or recycling and rag-picking performed for long hours
3
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
As such, there is a clear challenge in nor sexual abuse was recorded at significant identifying, measuring and addressing levels, although the survey notes that hazardous child labour, as any studies are physical abuse takes place on different scales influenced by the extent to which these at different ages. activities are visible (ILO, 2018). There is also However, these figures should be considered a gender dimension to ‘invisibility’: when a in the context of the limitations of a girl is married, her identity as a child becomes quantitative survey approach for such topics. over-shadowed by her identity as ‘spouse’ Different types of study have found far higher and ‘home-maker’. levels of physical and sexual abuse. For Equally – or perhaps even more – importantly, instance, a study of 71 domestic workers in the survey did not include the ‘compulsory Bangladesh found that 25 per cent of the worst forms of child labour’: commercial interviewed girls, all employed as domestic sexual exploitation and trafficking, illicit workers (average age: 11), considered that production and trafficking of drugs, bonded they had been sexually abused, with several labour, and forced marriage. There is reporting having been raped (Blanchet, 1996). therefore no statistical visibility for children in Other studies have revealed a dimension of these situations, as the approach/ ‘silent abuse’, resulting from the methodology of data collection does not discrimination experienced by child workers. apply to the context in which these children One study found that, for many child work. Data on trafficking and sexual domestic workers, the experience of exploitation are anecdotal. Given the social discrimination and their isolation in the stigma, the pressure of criminal networks and employer’s household was the most difficult the secretive nature of these crimes, reporting part of the psychological toll they endured, levels are low, and the data available at public commenting that it was “neither the verbal or and policy level are almost certainly severe physical punishments, nor the possible lack of underestimations. material goods or even food, that upset [child domestic workers] the most; it was the This issue can be better contextualized once discrimination, exclusion, disrespect, we look at the data registered in the National ingratitude, and other assaults on their Child Labour Survey (BBS, 2015) regarding emotional needs that truly hurt them” (Baum, abuse experienced by children in workplaces. 2011). The survey reports a comparatively low prevalence of physical and other abuses Although the National Child Labour Surveys experienced by working children. The most do not shed light on the causes of child common type of abuse working children are labour/WFCL, many other studies have looked exposed to is ‘constant shouting/insult’ by the into this and identified multiple actors and employer, which was reported by 17.1 per factors (Ali, 2019). cent of respondents. Neither physical abuse
4
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
Figure 1: Actors and drivers of the worst forms of child labour in Bangladesh
It is important to note that poverty alone does how/why individuals are differently affected not lead to engagement in the WFCL. Studies by the same set of conditions. have revealed that child labour can be high even in areas where poverty is low;1 this 3. Limitations of the policy and legal regime serves to demonstrate that child labour is a regarding WFCL complex/multidimensional phenomenon (ILO, This section looks at the implications of the 2019). Other relevant factors appear to global and national policy and legal regime in include: a culture of acceptance of child addressing the hidden and WFCL. labour; rural–urban migration; technological The WFCL are defined according to choices; the inability of formal structures to international standards under ILO Convention monitor informal employment; insufficient No. 182 (ILO, 1999a, 2011). This has been access to education; and global demand for ratified by Bangladesh. It defines ‘hazardous cheap labour. All of these can be considered work’ as one of the four WFCL and prohibits part of the complex processes that lead to children from being engaged in the following child labour, and the WFCL in particular. The types of work (ILO, 1999: Article 3): existence and status of criminal networks (a) all forms of slavery or practices (such as human trafficking chains) also have a similar to slavery, such as the sale and role in the process of forming WFCL. trafficking of children, debt bondage and However, studies do not adequately explain serfdom and forced or compulsory
1 The percentage of child labour is highest in the of poverty is highest in the Rangpur, Barisal and Dhaka and Chittagong divisions, while the incidence Rajshahi divisions (ILO, 2019).
5
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
labour, including forced or compulsory Recommendation No. 190 (ILO, 1999b) and recruitment of children for use in armed the non-binding guidelines that accompany conflict; Convention No. 182 (ILO, 1999a) urge (b) the use, procuring or offering of a member states to consider a set of child for prostitution, for the production characteristics in developing the list. of pornography or for pornographic In Bangladesh, the Ministry of Labour and performances; Employment (MoLE) has adopted a list of 38 (c) the use, procuring or offering of a work sectors and processes defined as child for illicit activities, in particular for ‘hazardous for children’. the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international Bangladesh has not ratified ILO Convention treaties; No. 138 (ILO, 1973), which sets the general (d) work which, by its nature or the minimum age for (non-hazardous) work and circumstances in which it is carried out, prohibits hazardous work for all children is likely to harm the health, safety or under the age of 18. This minimum age is morals of children. based on the legal age for the end of compulsory education and the legal age for The countries ratifying the Convention No. starting employment or work of different 182, are obligated to prepare a “hazardous types. It also gave countries the option of work list”. However, a study (ILO, 2018) legislating to permit children to participate in reflects, some lists cover too little, with focus ‘light work’ that does not interfere with on those trades and types of work that education (from 13 in a country with a general present safety issues (e.g. risk of injury), minimum age of 15, and from 12 if the leaving those without immediate or visible general minimum age was provisionally set at symptoms (e.g. chronic illnesses or 14) (ILO, 2018). These areas of flexibility have psychological problems). This happens as, an impact on the legal instruments that define the Convention itself does not define what minimum age, giving countries the option of this element includes, instead leaving it to setting it below 18. individual countries to develop their own “hazardous work list”.2 However, the ILO’s Reflecting this, Bangladesh’s Labour Act 2006 Worst Forms of Child Labour (amended 2013) set a minimum age of
2 Article 4 of Convention No. 182 (ILO, 1999) says: “1. Child Labour Recommendation, 1999. 2. The The types of work referred to under Article 3(d) [work competent authority, after consultation with the which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it organizations of employers and workers concerned, is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or shall identify where the types of work so determined morals of children] shall be determined by national exist. 3. The list of the types of work determined laws or regulations or by the competent authority, under paragraph 1 of this Article shall be periodically after consultation with the organizations of examined and revised as necessary, in consultation employers and workers concerned, taking into with the organizations of employers and workers consideration relevant international standards, in concerned.” particular Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Worst Forms of
6
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali employment at 14 years. This Act allows protection to the largest proportion of children aged 14–17 to engage in light work, working children, and also to many of the as long as they have a health certificate from youngest children engaged in child labour. the appropriate authority, and various other specific conditions are met. Informal and formal sectors of employment of children Overall, it therefore appears that the global As many as 89.3 per cent of respondents to agenda on child labour (in terms of UN the National Child Labour Survey stated instruments) may be biased towards labour that their work was on an informal basis. rights and labour governance. While While the proportions were high in all age ratification of the ILO instruments would and groups, they were highest among younger does offer greater protection and improved groups. For example, 100 per cent of five- legislation, these tools to protect the rights of year-olds were employed informally, children in labour situations are not adequate compared with 86.9 per cent in the 14–17 in holistically addressing the rights of children age group. Informal workers are far more (as proclaimed in the United Nations vulnerable to losing their job: employers Convention on the Rights of the Child, are not obliged to provide any explanation UNCRC). or follow specific rules when terminating The origin of the definitions used in informal employment. Informal workers Bangladesh’s National Child Labour Survey have no rights to protect their employment, can be seen in the Labour Act 2006 (amended meaning the risk of exploitation may be 2013). This prohibits employment for higher. ‘children’ – under the age of 14 – and hazardous work for ‘adolescents’, defined as Source: BBS, National Child Labour Survey 2013, BBS, Dhaka, 2015. under the age of 18. The hazardous work in this regard refers to a list prepared by the The Labour Act also does not include any government on hazardous work for provisions for addressing the compulsory adolescents. The Labour Act differs from worst forms of child labour. Instead, this is UNCRC, and Bangladesh’s own Children Act addressed by the Prevention and Suppression 2013 and National Children Policy 2011, which of Human Trafficking (PSHT) Act 2012, which define ‘children’ as those under 18. The criminalizes human trafficking (inclusive of Labour Act is also focused primarily on the child trafficking) and the economic formal sector of the economy. However, the exploitation, forced labour and sexual majority of children engaged in hazardous exploitation of children. The law also work are employed in the informal sector. addresses child trafficking (section 3). Further, at younger age groups, the These two critical acts for child protection are proportion of children in the informal sector is the responsibility of two separate government higher. As such, the Labour Act offers no
7
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali departments. MoLE is responsible for the is yet to be integrated into the strategies Labour Act, while the Ministry of Home addressing child labour. Affairs (MoHA) has responsibility for the In the absence of a cohesive and holistic PSHT Act. This means that there is a split in understanding on WFCL, and while the labour the legal mandate in relation to WFCL, and governance angle remains the primary means there is a need for inter-ministerial of identifying child labour, the national survey coordination to address WFCL holistically. and research initiatives do not holistically Definitional ambiguities, especially around address the concerns of WFCL. Within the the minimum age of employment and current institutional arrangements, the administrative listing (of hazardous child National Child Labour Survey focuses on labour), contribute to the statistical invisibility hazardous child labour under MoLE, while the of a substantial number of the children data on child trafficking are expected to be engaged in hazardous child labour. This provided by MoHA. weakens the policy efforts and limits the Apart from legal instruments, there are scope of legal enforcement. For example, several policies and national action plans that ‘child sexual exploitation’ is not viewed by address child labour (U.S. Department of MoLE as a child labour-related issue. The Labor, 2017). Children Act 2013 defines children as individuals under 18 years and identifies a set • The Child Labour National Plan of Action of entitlements beyond work – which is (2012–2021) identifies strategies for different from the Labour Act 2006 (under 14). developing institutional capacity, It also leads to segmented, uncoordinated increasing access to education and and ambiguous actions across different health services, raising social awareness, ministries. strengthening law enforcement, and creating prevention and reintegration Within this context, the legal responsibility for programmes. In 2017, the plan was addressing child labour remains with MoLE, extended through to 2021. while the responsibility for implementing the • The Domestic Workers Protection and Labour Act sits with the Labour Court and the Welfare Policy sets the minimum age for Department of Inspection for Factories and domestic work at 14 years; however, Establishments (DIFE). Each of these children aged 12 and 13 can work as institutions partially addresses the concerns domestic workers with parental of child labour, but none has any jurisdiction permission. The policy is not at present over the compulsory worst forms of child legally enforceable. labour. This further reveals that the labour • The National Plan of Action for governance-based approach is inadequate in Combating Human Trafficking (2018– addressing child labour. The broader 2022) addresses child trafficking and spectrum of child rights and child protection
8
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
forced labour within the broader presents a way forward for addressing these framework of tackling human trafficking. challenges. • The National Education Policy specifies As discussed in the preceding sections, the the government’s education policy, review of some of the existing data on child including pre-primary, primary, labour reveals: secondary, vocational and technical, • The National Child Labour Survey higher, and non-formal education defines the minimum acceptable age of policies. It sets the minimum age for employment as 14, in line with the compulsory (free) education through to Labour Act, instead of 18 (as in the eighth grade (age 14). Children Act 2013). This leads to an • The Seventh Five Year Plan (2016–2020) underestimation of the prevalence of includes actions designed to accelerate child labour from the perspective of a the elimination of WFCL, with a focus on children’s rights-based approach. child domestic workers and other • Only a small proportion of the children vulnerable groups. It sets out actions to engaged in hazardous work are working be taken by the government, including: in the listed hazardous sectors/activities. o forming a policy for children working Many more are exposed to hazardous in the formal sector; work in terms of the number of hours o providing assistance to street children they work each week. To this end, the to protect them from exploitation; National Child Labour Survey has o coordinating the government and adopted a definition of hazardous child other stakeholders for effective labour based on both the amount of time rehabilitation; they work and other potential harms. o increasing working children’s access This reflects the fact that, in most cases, to formal and non-formal learning; the informal sector exploits hazardous and child labour. However, the legal tools o the provision of livelihood support to and monitoring mechanisms are unable poor households with children. to recognize and address hazardous child However, few data are available to show labour with such diversity (and largely whether any activities were undertaken in exclude the informal sectors). This relation to these given goals and objectives. reveals a critical gap in converting the
existing statistical visibilities of WFCL in 4. Barriers in promoting effective research these sectors, into formal listing within and interventions the scope of the existing legal This section identifies some of the critical framework. challenges and gaps in research on • The quantitative or survey approach is understanding the hidden and WFCL. It also not suitable for recording the incidence
9
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
of physical and sexual abuse survey’. Work in home-based industries experienced by children at work. is often seen as a way of acquiring useful Consideration should be given to skills for the future and being beneficial introducing qualitative research or a for the marriage credentials of girls mixed-method approach, in which (IREWOC, 2010). This social acceptance sensitive issues can be considered within often leads to these sectors being national surveys. excluded from the scope of studies and • There is a gender dimension to the surveys – in turn resulting in the trends in hazardous child labour. While continued statistical invisibility of a the number of boys under this category section of WFCL. decreased by 34 per cent between 2003 • There are also geographical and and 2013, the number of girls increased ethnographic aspects of child labour that by over a factor of four. However, there remain invisible to national surveys. For is no research available regarding this. example, the National Child Labour • Child domestic workers are currently Survey did not mention the use of child excluded from the official list of labour in tea gardens (in the Sylhet hazardous sectors/activities. This ignores division of Bangladesh). The ethnic the long working hours and harmful communities working in these tea working conditions of child domestic plantations – known as ‘gardens’ – workers (including risks of physical remain hidden in the aggregated abuse, sexual abuse and psychological database or excluded from the sample. harm). Once again, it reveals the Either way, the existing national limitations of a labour lens for assessing database does not reveal the existence of and understanding child labour, specially these children and sectors as hosts of WFCL. child labour. To address the gaps, micro- • The informal sector is difficult to monitor level studies are carried out. Often, and study because it is very difficult to sector-specific studies are conducted in access the children involved in this isolation. Although these studies provide sector. These children (such as child partial views on context, they provide domestic workers and those involved in invaluable insights. home-based craft sectors) are often not Child labour in tea gardens visible to authorities. Moreover, family- A survey revealed that 47.1 per cent based employment of children (unpaid of workers acknowledged the labour) is often not included in the existence of child labour in tea studies as ‘child labour’. This has led to gardens in Sylhet. Workers in the tea the statistical invisibility of these children gardens take their children to work to within the scope of a ‘child labour meet targets and secure more
10
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
income. Children also work on Child domestic workers vacation days, and both after and A study by Bangladesh Shishu before school hours. In the survey, it Adhikar Forum (BSAF, 2014) notes was found that 42 per cent of workers that, since 2006, there has been no had three to four children, which survey on the number of child could drive child labour. Tea garden domestic workers in Bangladesh. In authorities also welcome children to 2006, an ILO baseline survey (ILO, help their parent workers in plucking. 2006) found about 3.2 million child The main causes of child labour in tea labourers in Bangladesh. Among gardens are: substitute for parents, them, 421,000 (13.16 per cent) were reluctance to engage in schooling, employed as domestic aides. Of complementing family income these, 75 per cent were girls, who (poverty), workers bring children to were particularly vulnerable as they meet targets, and secure residence. worked behind closed doors and it Male children do work such as was difficult to reach them and talk to digging canals, repairing roads, and them. In another study on child taking care of tea plants, whereas domestic workers in Dhaka City, BASF female children pluck the tea leaves, found that 78 per cent of the total and put tea in sacks. Children are also child domestic workers were girls, deployed to spread pesticides, as well compared with 83 per cent on as make drugs for the tea garden average in 10 other city locations. workers. Source: BSAF, 2014; ILO, 2006. Source: Ahmmed and Hossain, 2016. • The girls and boys employed in formal • A simple demonstration of the difficulty work sectors are often “well-guarded of studying the hidden groups of secrets” (ICFTU, 1994). Children hazardous child labour is to look at employed in informal sectors are often different estimates of prevalence. The out of the public domain (and small sample-based qualitative studies institutional monitoring) as they work in (as mentioned above) are effective in someone’s home (such as child domestic revealing details on these hidden groups. workers) or are viewed as participants of But these small studies are unable to ‘family-based activities’ (such as establish robust estimations on agriculture). The victims of trafficking (for prevalence. This has led to disputed fishing, sexual exploitation and figures and misrepresentation of pornography etc.) are often invisible in vulnerable groups. the public domain and kept in captivity by criminal networks. It is extremely
11
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
difficult for researchers or monitoring SKOP and BILS) – with the potential to authorities to reach these children to overcome the barriers put in place by access information. employers to gathering information and • Out-of-date data also work as a barrier to to address the apparent invisibility of developing a proper understanding on WFCL in some sectors; it would require the current context. The last National effective engagement and collaboration Child Labour Survey was conducted in between research agencies, development 2013. There is a dependency on a very actors and universities and these slow-moving process of data generation business groups; at the national level. For broader • securing institutional alliance between acceptance and ownership, the National research initiatives and child Child Labour Surveys are carried out by labour/WFCL-related authorities (such as BBS (government) in collaboration with MoLE, MoHA, National Child Labour UN agencies (ILO/UNICEF). The Welfare Council etc.) – helping findings institutional set-up of these surveys is to inform and influence political and often bureaucratic and restricts the legal reforms; and involvement of citizens (researchers, • specifically focusing on ways to address activists, academia and children) in data the relative invisibility of girls and ethnic collection and analysis process. minorities in surveys and studies.
It is clear that policy and legal documents and 5. Towards an inclusive conceptual plans have played a strong role in shaping the framework on WFCL mindset of institutions and policy actors. As To address the existing research gaps on such, there is a need to review these child labour – specifically regarding WFCL – documents and identify the limitations of a alternative approaches should be considered. labour governance-based approach as Potential methods include: opposed to a children’s rights-based • holistically studying all four of the approach. Work should be undertaken on categories of WFCL listed by the ILO definitions of children, child labour and WFCL Convention No. 182 (including hazardous – and the implications of those definitions – to and compulsory WFCL) within an help build an inclusive framework on WFCL. inclusive conceptual framework – with In particular, the segregation of hazardous the need to conduct national surveys and child labour and the compulsory worst forms micro (qualitative) studies to ensure of child labour in legislative and statistical visibility of WFCL; administrative arrangements need to be • engaging with business, non- questioned, as does the predominance of a governmental organizations and trade labour governance lens in policy regarding union networks (e.g. BEA, ATSEC, NACG, child labour.
12
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
References
Ahmmed, Faisal and Md. Ismail Hossain, A Study Report on Working Conditions of Tea Plantation Workers in Bangladesh, ILO, Dhaka, 2016,
Ali, A. K. M. M., ‘Challenges of Implementation of ILO Convention 182 in Bangladesh’, keynote presentation at National Consultation on ILO C182, organized by Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), held at International Conference Center, CIRDAP, Dhaka, 26 September 2019.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), National Child Labour Survey 2002–2003, BBS, Dhaka, 2003,
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), National Child Labour Survey 2013, BBS, Dhaka, 2015,
Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), Hidden Slavery: Child Domestic Workers (Study on the Situation of Child Domestic Workers in Bangladesh), BSAF, Dhaka, 2014,
Baum, N., ‘Girl Domestic Labour in Dhaka: Betrayal of Trust’, in Working Boys and Girls at Risk: Child labour in urban Bangladesh, edited by G.K. Lieten, University Press Limited, Dhaka, 2011.
Blanchet, T., Lost Innocence, Stolen Childhoods, University Press Limited/Rädda Barnen, Dhaka, 1996.
U.S. Department of Labor, ‘Bangladesh: Moderate Advancement’, Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., 2017,
International Labour Organization (ilo.org), Baseline survey on child domestic labour (CDL) in Bangladesh, ILO, Dhaka, 2006,
International Labour Organization (ILO), Minimum Age Convention No. 138, ILO, Geneva, 1973,
International Labour Organization (ILO), Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No. 182, ILO, Geneva, 1999a,
International Labour Organization (ILO), Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation No. 190, ILO, Geneva, 1999b,
13
The Forbidden Terrain of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: A critical look at the implications of legal tools and definitions used by national surveys in Bangladesh | Masud Ali
International Labour Organization (ILO), Towards the Urgent Elimination of Hazardous Child Labour, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, ILO, Geneva, 2018,
International Labour Organization (ILO), A Review of Social Safety-Net Programmes: To Make them More Responsive to the Needs of Child Labour in Bangladesh, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, ILO, Geneva, 2019,
International Labour Organization (ILO), Children in Hazardous Work: What we know, what we need to do, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, ILO, Geneva, 2011,
International Research on Working Children (IREWOC), The Worst Forms of Child Labour in Asia: Main findings from Bangladesh and Nepal, IREWOC, Leiden, 2010,
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), The Best Kept Secret; Child labour around the world, ICTFU, Brussels, 1994,
14