Child Labor in Bangladesh
According to the U.N. Children’s Fund report, more than 6.3 million children under 14 are working in Bangladesh. Many of them work under very poor conditions; some of them even risk their life. Factory owners pay them about 400 to 700 taka (10 USD) a month, while an adult worker earns up to 5,000 taka per month.
Jainal works in silver cooking pot factory. He is 11 years old. He has been working in this factory for three years. His work starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. For his work he gets 700 taka (10 USD) for a month. His parents are so poor that they can not afford to send him to school. According to the factory owner, the parents do not care for their children; they send their kids to work for money and allegedly don’t feel sorry for these small kids.
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13-year-old Liyakot Ali works in a silver cooking pot factory in Old Dhaka. The children work 10 hour days in hazardous conditions, for a weekly wage of 200 taka (3 USD). Dhaka.
7-year-old Jasmine collects rubbish from a steaming rubbish heap on a cold winter morning. She earns money to support her family by scavenging for items on the Kajla rubbish dump. It is one of three landfill sites in a city of 12 million people. Around 5,000 tons of garbage are dumped here each day and more than 1,000 people work among the rubbish, sorting through the waste and collecting items to sell to retailers for recycling.
Children at a brick factory in Fatullah. For each 1,000 bricks they carry, they earn the equivalent of 0.9 USD.
Hands of 8-year-old Munna while working in a rickshaw parts making factory. He works 10 hours a day and gets 8 USD for a month. Dhaka .
17.5 percent of children in the aged 5–15 are engaged in economic activities. Many of these children are engaged in various hazardous occupations in manufacturing factories. Dhaka .
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America didn’t get rid of child labor, we just exported it.
Some things will never change.
We are living in a jungle were the “meat eaters” are wining.
We should get rid of them before they will eat us too.
“Some things will never change?”
Just about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard about this issue.
It has to and will change by time.
-1 tupac wannabee and deer killer.
+2 article
On the other hand, they’re not doing drugs, stealing, killing, and living totally selfish and amoral lives.
Can a point of balance be found for the youth today?
Borneo, good God man, seriously?! There’s no way you actually typed that. I hope to God you are nowhere near a position of power, for the good of our kids.
I agree with Borneo. There has to be a change there and at home too, in our own way of bring up children.
Breed like a rat, value others life as a rat, live like a rat
Kids have worked throughout history.
It is only through the wealth generated by technology and free trade and capital investment that allows us to send our kids to school until they are 18 or 22. You can’t outlaw poverty. But you can change conditions so that THE PEOPLE are allowed to accumulate wealth and capital.
they should be at school.
This is heartbreaking. Look at those poor kids. What have they done to deserve this? Why is the government not doing anything? What are the parents thinking??
Propaganda. These photo’s are all probably staged. That is all.
@human8109,
Brilliant. 100% True. When pricing child labor, one must actually value against the cost of living as well. A child’s daily contribution is enough to pay for an apartment’s rental in outskirts of poverty similar to urban poverty in the US. The real issue is what would they have if the corporations weren’t there to provide opportunities? It would just be undeveloped area, would they be farmers of some sort? Education could go either way, it is a touchy subject.
Is it too hard to give credit to the photographer in this post? I don’t see a link or the name of the person who created these “stunning” photos anywhere.
Human8109 hit the nail there on the first sentence. I know we cannot outlaw poverty but we must do something to embrace the idea of eliminating it. That will help some people. We must teach and show our children things like this so they become better people and cherish how important is have plate of food without breaking a sweat. Most people take it from granted and others live in their own world. Teach, learn and help three words that will go very far.
Who buys these things? I regularly look at tags and labels and have yet to come across something made in Bangladesh.
I feel for those kids, but what is the purpose of reporting the pay without context? Like how much does food for a month cost in Bangladesh (in USD)?
So basically these kids either work or starve to death. Well I’m a lot happier knowing they can at least bring in some income. One can only hope Bangladesh becomes an open, lawful free market society and will hopefully improve their lot.
some thing will never change in a profit-orientated system.
ever thought about a heart-based system ? or resource based system ?
….
fuck the profitsystem.. or it will fuck you.
feel like crying when I see the photos.
((((
If only we have free and compulsory education till children get 16 anywhere. Only with education, there can be change for the poor kid.
Ok. Seriously, these parents don’t care about these kids, and while not all Indians tolerate this abuse of children, most will view this as a product of KARMA.
As in, if you weren’t evil or horrible in your past life, you wouldn’t be born into this class.
And if this sounds “racist” or presumptuous, this was way worse in the time of the Brahmin/untouchables. In fact, you still don’t want to belong to the “untouchables” class.
KARMA.
Think of that next time someone “screws you over” and you tell a friend “karma will get’em” or you watch “My Name Is Earl”.
“Kids have worked throughout history.
It is only through the wealth generated by technology and free trade and capital investment that allows us to send our kids to school until they are 18 or 22. You can’t outlaw poverty. But you can change conditions so that THE PEOPLE are allowed to accumulate wealth and capital.”
Thank you.
thats why people move to america
At least they’re working and have a job!
It will never change. In two hundred years another dude will make a hologram picture of child sex slaves on mars. The only way to cure the sickness is to kill every single human or just stop breeding.
Don’t care. Good riddance to bad garbage. The garbage in this case being the child laborers.
My only regret is that we cannot induce death through sleep deprivation.
In our country we become adults in our 30’s, these kids are already adults by the time they are ten, the next time I hear a whiney ass college kid bitch about having to on the weekends or a night job I am going to punch them in the face and eat a taco.
Borneo: you are the very example of why I hope there are two subspecies of human and you belong to the one I do not.
Way to blame the victim.
I think the Bangladeshi are onto something. Kids in western countries are utterly worthless parasites until they hit 25 or so. These kids are putting in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. A work ethic that we apparently have forgotten.
If they’d have fewer children, there’d be less of this AND fewer mouths to feed in general.
It’s sad, but come’on, you can’t change things in THIS country, how the hell are you going to change things there?
I’d give a few kids some money every month if it would help, but their parents would probably still make them work.
Our products have to be made by somebody. We love those kids….to death. Nike
Globalization at its finest. The ruling elite should be proud.
Check the coverage on many many humanitarian violations on
dam-age.com
The problem here is that these working conditions exist for any human being.
The fact that they are children only multiplies the horror.
Sorry, but this is often the hard path necessary for a country to advance economically.
Ask the people of these countries if they would like child labor laws enacted…you would get a resounding “NO”. What would these kids be doing if labor laws were enacted….they would be sifting through garbage and begging for handouts. Sad but true.
“According to the factory owner, the parents do not care for their children; they send their kids to work for money and allegedly don’t feel sorry for these small kids.”
Are you fucking kidding me?
Do you realize if they didn’t work they’d starve?
They’re fucking poor and they have nothing, you have no fucking clue what it’s like for these people in other parts of the world and yet you judge them with such a poison tongue.
It’s work or starve, it was the same in the US for years until we actually accrued some capital and savings just as these people are attempting to do. Yet unlike America which had freedom and little to no government they’re undermined every step of the way by their massive parasitic socialist government.
Better to be working in hazardous conditions than starving to death in the street. My Indian friends agree with me.
Prohibiting child labor will not fix this problem. Investment in the country and developing Bangladesh’s economy, coupled with protection of individual rights and rooting out government corruption that allows businesses to harm their workers, is the only way to avoid this in the future.
ITT: Trolls
Perhaps the Bangladeshis should stop having so many kids for starters.
Not only is cheep labor necessary for us to get what we demand at the prices we demand it but for average americans, if cheep labor was outlawed in poverty stricken countries the changes would be unbearable. These kids are not being held at gunpoint to work, it is not a slave trade. the wages they make are suitable for the lifestyle they are accustomed and probably help their family a ton. I wish I was given the opportunity to be occupied by real work when I was a kid even if it was for less than minimum wage skill sets like metal and wood crafting and machining are invaluable and most americans are too pansy to even broach the idea.
Some of you are unbelievably ignorant. This is not abuse. It would be abuse for their parents to let them sit around and do nothing. This is survival. Oh and btw, they will be in school when you all get off your selfish asses, go build them one and find some teachers. Your carelessness is most appalling.
If you think you care for these children, think again, you don’t give a shit. Your probably sitting at your computer with a flavored drink that you won’t even finish when these kids barely get to drink water(dirty or clean).
Parents have nothing to do with its, you can’t blame someones parents because its their parents fault. And so fourth until I guess for the more stupid of you, you would get to Adam and Eve.
Love the first comment, well done.
My comment is not aimed at you Kevin, didn’t see it until I refreshed the page. I agree 300%.
All this douchebag comment. People really have Diarrhea mouths- they just say the first thing that pops into that little brain of theirs. Look douches, America outlawed this stuff in the early 20th century. Some countries have not. Those two facts have nothing to do with one another. This is a sad situation. To say that these youths don’t “do drugs” or “steal” is ludicrous. You are actually insulting the children we’re talking about by assuming they do no wrong. They are people, like you and I, and do all the things we do like lie, cheat, and steal. Damned douches make little to no sense. Go read some books.
Bangladesh or India- most uneducated souls have more than 3 children and most poor muslims marry multiple women and have more than 7-8 children while they cant even feed themselves. Have seen this while serving in Northern India around hindu\muslim villages. Why cant their dad and mom do this job earn some money and send one kid to school rather than f..ing around. And such a sad state that u cannot help these children or women. Tried helping distributing polio vaccines – one guy said “Allah gave me a kid he knows how to take care of him – we dont need vaccines”. To this my friend replied Allah gave u brains – Cant you use it?
Dint have to trash all muslims – I got lot of good friends. but entire world if you see the poorest country is where the women and kids are treated bad and thats mostly where u find them.
Let us all pledge not to support child labour at all. Let us all pledge that we will never hire any child labour no matter how much higher wages we need to pay to adult (grown-up) workers.
Please read pages 222 and 223 of “The undercover economist: exposing why the rich are rich, the poor are poor, and why you can never buy a decent used car” by Tim Harford. This kind of thing will not be stopped by governments anywhere and will not stop until there is more economic freedom in the world. The rest of the book is pretty good too.
u guys wont understand the full picture unless u have seen it for urself.. some of the kids there have to work because they live in poverty. Myself coming from India, ive seen kids work all over the place. Yes, there are some that are forced into working, but i bet most of the pics taken here are of kids who have a large family to feed and the income of the parents isnt sufficient to support the whole family since the labor force in india/bangladesh is extremely cheap. What do the parents have to look for when they wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night? They have no tv, no computer, no proper bed to sleep on, no education and on top of that the food prices are quite high. Their only hope is to have kids and if they are lucky enough.. they would send 1 of them through proper schooling. Its a sad reality but thats how the world spins if people in the US and other countries want their shirts and pants for cheap. But better cheap than nothing at all.
Don’t fool yourselves. This is what the citizens of the richest world nations want. Do you want to give up your quality of life so others can laze around and take things for granted like you do? The only difference is they would have nothing else to do if it weren’t for us at this point in time.
This unfortunately is a requirement; a direct result of your consumerism. Appreciate what you have, it’s production is directly responsible for the limited success of this third world economy.
All I can think of is the land fill in the west is full of recyclables but in the 3rd world they are actually doing what we should be. Of course it would be preferable that they were kitted out in proper safety gear.
This is absolutely heart-breaking! I’m a girl of 16 years old and am working at KFC and I normally do 3 shifts a week for about 12 hours and i feel totally down at the end of the week! But these kids are younger than me and they are working the whole week!
This is so unfair towards those poor souls. All I can do is that pray to God to help them out everyday in my prayers. Justice is always late in God’s ground but its never undone! And I can try to spread my positive waves across the world to help these kids get the best life that they deserve! God bless all of you ♥
One doesnt need to be a rocket scientist or noble prize winner in economics to understand why child labour exisits in this country or in many parts of the world. Everyone in this country knows the truth – be them poor, rich, educated or people with no education.
I live in Bangladesh. Let me tell you the truth from inside the context- there are two key reasons –
1. Poverty of parents- its simply because of poverty these kids are forced to work; if a country could remove extream poverty, child labour will autometically disappear.
2. Social acceptence and mind set up- most people here consider it as normal and they redicolously belive they have nothing to do to change it. they have their own little world to busy with and they actively think that someone else will change it. Everyday they see kids working and still do not think it UNACCEPTABLE. One can do anthropological reserach why these people think they way they think.
I want to help Poor People so I can do everything for that purpose
I want to help poor people
I want to help poor people..
as a kid in America, i was looking up pictures for this subject for a report i’m doing. I never expected it to be this bad. My imagination never could have pictured this. I didn’t think it was that bad. I just pictured small kids in a shop with a bunch of other people sewing on a hundred machines. I never expected to see kids with bricks on their heads or picking up garbage at the age of 7.
As a 16 year old. I can tell you now, this must stop.
Even i can see this.
OMG!!!! that is so sad!
This really is the most horrible situation anyone can be in, where are the NATO countries where is EULEX, what about the rich like Rockafeller just getting richer and richer by the minute, there is enough food and money in this world to give everyone a good life, but the politicians and the rich and famous want to rule this world, do they know what is awaiting them after this life?
We are extremely lucky. We have no idea. Kids shouldn’t be doing audult work. It’s messed up. Kids anywhere deserve more than that.
God Bless them. I’m 14 and broken hearted because of that.
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watching these photo it is hard to believe Bangladesh have thousands of millionaires who are taking advantages from these helpless children…