Child Day & Bangladesh

Bangladesh and the garment industry

Although child labor is illegal in Bangladesh, for years the powerful garment industry employed
between 50,000 and 75,000 children under 14, mainly girls. Bangladesh is one of the world's
leading garment exporters, but the situation captured little international attention until 1992,
when the US introduced legislation to ban the importation of goods made using child labour.

As a result, garment employers dismissed about three-quarters of all children employed in the
industry. With no access to education and few skills, the children had few alternatives to
escape their crushing poverty. Many went looking for new jobs in stone-crushing, street
hustling and prostitution - all more hazardous and exploitative than garment making.
Recognizing the need for action, UNICEF and the Ipec programme of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) began talks with industry leaders in 1993 to find a solution.

After two years of difficult negotiations, an agreement was signed in 1995 between the
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), UNICEF and the
ILO. The parties agreed to: move all workers aged below 14 within four months to appropriate
education program; no further hiring of under-age workers; and offer the children's jobs to
qualified adult family members.

With financial support from UNICEF, two NGO's - Gono Shahjjo Shangstha and the Bangladesh
Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) - have been placing former child labourers in special
schools. There they are protected and receive health care, skills development training and a
monthly cash stipend to compensate for their lost wages. Personal bank accounts and credit
facilities have been set up for the families.

For more information: June Kunugi, Communication Officer, UNICEF Bangladesh, Tel: (+11
8802) 933 5807; the UNICEF child labour pages (including links into other child labour
websites); the International Labour Organisation website (external link-UNICEF has no control
over content or availability)

source: unicef.org

Bangladesh: An entire industry bans child labour 

The threat of a consumer boycott of their exported products was one reason why garment
manufacturers in Bangladesh decided to put an end to the employment of children under 14
years of age in their 200 factories. 

Some factory owners - all of them members of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and
Exporters' Association (BGMEA) - reacted precipitously to the boycott menace by dismissing
all their child workers on the spot, thereby attracting criticism for making a bad situation worse
by denying poor families access to an important source of income. 

ILO - IPEC was among those who urged a more comprehensive approach to the problem, to
include the rehabilitation of the child workers through regular education and the provision of
alternative earning opportunities for the affected families. 

The outcome was an agreement signed by the Government, BGMEA, IPEC and UNICEF in
1995 to combine in a systematic operation on an unprecedented scale: nothing less than the
phasing out of child labour from the entire garment manufacturing industry in a controlled and
humane manner. 

Central elements of the programme are rehabilitation of the 10,500 children involved and income
support for their families.

Regular schooling is the key to rehabilitation, but in many areas schools are either inadequate
or non-existent. UNICEF's responsibility is to help overcome that deficiency. By mid-1996 it
had 2,100 children enrolled in 130 schools, with the likelihood that all would be in schools well
before the year's end. 

Income support is covered by the payment of a monthly stipend of US$7.50 per student, the
cost being shared by BGMEA, IPEC and UNICEF. 

IPEC has devised a monitoring system, staffed by 25 trained teams, to ensure that factories
comply with the agreement, and also to check that the children are regular in their school
attendance and have not drifted into work elsewhere.

The operation's strengths are considerable. Over 10,000 children will benefit from the change it
is making to their lives. Cooperation with employers has been reinforced, a point that has not
gone unnoticed by employers' organizations in other countries. The industry has averted the
boycott danger. 

But it also raises new problems. Stipends are crucial to its success, but the financial obligation
they incur is unsustainable; ways must be found to boost family income in the long term. The
project targets children from the garment industry over those in other industries, and it also
targets families which sent their children to work over those which made the sacrifice of
sending them to school. These problems must be yet overcome if the operation is to achieve
total success.

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