Bangladesh pledges ending child labour: Speakers

Bangladesh has pledged to end child labour, said speakers at an event today (12 December).

Md Towfiqul Arif, additional secretary (Labour), Ministry of Labour and Employment, appreciated the partnership with UNICEF Bangladesh and pledged to end this harmful practice. 

Speaking at an event on "Capacity Building Strategy on Elimination of Child Labour" on Tuesday at The Westin Dhaka, he emphasised joint initiatives by the relevant ministries to implement a National Plan of Action to eliminate child labour.

Md Towfiqul Arif was present in the training workshop as Chief Guest. Natalie McCauley, Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF Bangladesh was present as a Special Guest. Hazera Khatun, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and Elisa Calpona, PhD. Child Protection Manager of UNICEF Bangladesh attend as guest of honour.

Natalie McCauley said, "We must stop the hazardous forms entirely, and obviously, more effort must be done to ensure we reach the SDG. The global SDG reports on child well-being show that we have not made good progress in child labour indicators and need to do more."

Elisa Calpona said this initiative aligns with a broader partnership initiated by UNICEF with MoLE, DIFE and DoL in 2022. This is also part of GoB's commitment to eliminating child labour, reiterated during the Fifth Global Conference in May 2022, Durban, South Africa.

Ministry's focal point officer for the Elimination of Child Labour, Khondoker Md Nazmul Huda Shamim, presented the strategy according to the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labor.

Fatema Khyrunnnahar, child protection officer of UNICEF, said UNICEF is working to eliminate child labour in the country through programmes, capacity building, and policy reforms. This child labour elimination framework has been developed based on the NPA. Inspectors from DIFE and DOL, front-line officials from MoSW, MoWCA, MoPME, other relevant ministries, CSOs and community levels within or related to the scope of work of the society will implement it.

The training was conducted to address the identified challenges by developing the capacity of inspectors and key practitioners on child protection in line with the Children Act 2013 and protecting children from child labour through the development of facilitation guidelines for master and core trainers on eliminating child labour.