Give child labourers an education in Bangladesh

Child labour is a major issue in most low- and lower-middle-income countries in the world and Bangladesh is no exception. Instead of going to school and enjoying their childhood, many children are made to work to support their families and for their own livelihood. Despite it being against the law to employ children to work underneath cars, strip paint, weld metal, empty batteries and many other dangerous tasks, over 1.2 million children are employed in this way across Bangladesh. These children work for 14 hours a day in appalling conditions for no or low pay, they are routinely ill and frequently injured.

Working Children’s Project (hazardous labour)

Following a baseline study that revealed that 3,000 children are employed in hazardous jobs in Sylhet City, UKBET initiated our pioneering work with children doing hazardous work in workshops and small businesses in Sylhet.Our approach included careful advocacy work with employers, families and working children. Working children attend three education sessions a week at a centre near to their workplace. They are taught by specially trained community teachers supporting children to progress out of hazardous work into school, vocational training and work that is safe.

Working Children’s Project curriculum

Working in close partnership with FIVDB, we developed a special curriculum which enables children of any age and level to develop basic literacy and numeracy skills, aligned to the national curriculum. Another important part of the curriculum for all of the working children we support is life skills which include, for example, health, well-being, child rights, child marriage and also supports children to get their births registered.

Funders

Our Working children’s projects have been funded by individual donations.

Impact

Since 2014 we have engaged over 1,300 children doing hazardous work aged 5 – 14 (100% boys). Over 500 children have progressed into education or vocational training. We have reached over 6,500 family members in total, with over 2,200 medical prescriptions given and 140 families supported with a small business grant through our Family Futures programme. In addition: • All children have had their births registered the numbers of accidents and illnesses in workplaces has reduced significantly • Not one sibling has followed their older brother into work • Employers are using the safety equipment we have provided • Local employers are starting to change their practice in relation to employing children.

Links:

• http://www.ukbet-bd.org

Our key beneficiaries are extremely vulnerable families driven by poverty to send their children to work instead of school. Exposure to long hours of physical work, poor food, low or no wages and vulnerability seriously damages these children’s physical and mental health. The global pandemic has made this bad situation even worse. 

Where possible UKBET provided micro grants/interest free small loans to enable families to revive businesses or resume jobs lost due to the pandemic. UKBET also raised funds to support 378 families struggling to buy food.  Rotary International supported UKBET in organising a medical camp for the children and their families; 107 people attended and were seen by doctors and given treatment and free medicine as appropriate.

The charity provided services to children and families throughout 2020. Changes in teaching and learning in the UKBET centres for children working in hazardous occupations were put in place to allow for social distancing. The Doorstep Learning programme providing literacy, numeracy and life skills to children aged 5 to 14 working in domestic settings continued with one to one lessons in the homes of employers. 

During lockdown regular contact with the families of working children was maintained by telephone with 2863 calls made enquiring about their well being, providing information related to the pandemic and connecting families with Government services. Similarly 2171 calls were also made to employers. Strict hygiene procedures were put in place and awareness raised about the critical importance of mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. 10000 information leaflets and 2500 masks were distributed. Additionally sets of home learning materials were developed by UKBET staff and distributed to 633 children.

Fieldworkers resumed visits to families from September 2020 and saw at first hand the extreme suffering of 263 families. 124 families told fieldworkers that their lack of money was so desperate they had no alternative but to seek employment for many of their 1,128 children when the lockdown ended.  In previous years UKBET's interventions in the lives of working children and their families have been significantly successful with none of the siblings of working children in our programme following their brothers or sisters into work.  Predictions by the Campaign for Popular Education  Bangladesh indicate that one third of children will be forced to leave school and many of them become child workers due to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the health and poverty of the poorest families in Bangladesh.

Please make a regular or one-off donation to UKBET today – this will enable us to continue giving transformative support to working children and their families during this difficult time.