DHAKA: He works at a grocery store from eight in the morning to 11 at night, for which he gets the paltry equivalent of $6 a month. But 13-year-old Berket, who says he gets no day off, considers himself lucky.

“I could hardly take three meals a day when I was in my village home with my poor parents,” he says. Now, says Berket, he has food, shelter and even some money at the end of each month.

The young daughters of Moyeen, a rickshaw puller, are probably looking at their fates in a similar manner. Moyeen says he has let his daughters work as maids here in Dhaka because he can no longer support his family of five all by himself.

“I am unable to pull the rickshaw regularly due to respiratory trouble,” he says. “The monthly earnings of my two daughters amounting to about $10 are a great (help) to my family.”

Poverty is the root of child labour in Bangladesh, and experts say this is the reason why there is no “immediate prospect” that the practice can be eliminated quickly.

Says labour leader A. Harun: “As long as poverty remains, there is no chance of eradicating child labour from Bangladesh where 50 per cent of the total population lives below poverty line. Thirty million people of this impoverished country live in extreme poverty.”

Still, the experts say that this should be no excuse for any slackening of efforts to at least prevent children from taking on hazardous work, adding that more measures to limit the number of families dependent on children’s incomes should be drawn up.

They also say that with Bangladesh already having nearly 7.5 million child workers between the age of five and 14, it is time for the government to finally have a comprehensive programme addressing this social scourge.

Peter Stalker, a consultant to several UN agencies, even estimates that there are about 13 million Bangladeshi children being put to work, “with perhaps another eight million between ages of 10 and 14”.

Yet Dhaka seems content on relying on piecemeal efforts that, however laudable, can only do so much for too few children. Indeed, experts note that many of these efforts are initiatives of NGOs and international groups.

Dhaka signed an agreement with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Dutch government to implement a project aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labour here in the capital, including work with heavy machinery, welding and automobiles.

The $4.8-million project will be implemented by four NGOs, among them the Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS), which will provide non-formal education to the children.

The Underprivileged Children’s Education Programme (UCEP) will provide training and employment services to them while the Resources Integration Centre (RIC) will conduct a micro-credit programme for income-generating activities for the parents or guardians of the working children.

Experts say one crucial component of the project is the attempt to reduce the parents’ dependence on their children’s incomes. In many slum households, the children’s wages make up a hefty third of the family income.—Dawn/InterPress Service.