The Price of Poverty

For millions of children, childhood slips away not in the quiet passage of years, but beneath factory hammers, furnace heat and burdens their small hands were never meant to carry.

In a cramped workshop in Jinjira, 12-year-old Abdullah spends his days hammering aluminium into pots amid scrap metal, smoke and chemical fumes. His childhood, measured in hammer blows rather than classroom lessons, mirrors millions of children working in factories, workshops, farms, shops and private homes-often in conditions unsafe even for adults.

Despite laws, policies and a commitment to eliminate child labour by 2030, Bangladesh continues to struggle with widespread child employment, driven by poverty, weak enforcement and the expansion of the informal economy.

Government data puts the number of children in child labour at 1.78 million, including 1.07 million in hazardous work. The National Child Labour Survey (NCLS) 2022, however, found 3.54 million working children aged 5-17, nearly 99 per cent in the informal sector, where regulatory oversight remains limited.

The services sector employs around 1.27 million working children, followed by industry with 1.19 million and agriculture with 1.02 million. In automobile workshops, brick kilns, sawmills and chemical factories, many face hazardous machinery, heavy loads, toxic substances and 12-16-hour working days without protective equipment. Around 51.4 per cent of establishments in hazardous sectors reportedly pay child workers Tk 5,000 or less a month.

The Covid-19 pandemic deepened poor households’ vulnerability. The child labour rate reportedly rose from 6.8 per cent in 2019 to 9.2 per cent in 2025, as school closures and income losses pushed more children into work. Many never returned to classrooms after reopening.

Domestic work remains another largely hidden dimension. Available assessments estimate around 2.09 million children engaged in domestic work, approximately 2.01 million unpaid, with girls overwhelmingly represented. Inside private homes, many remain beyond labour inspectors’ effective reach, vulnerable to abuse and deprived of education.

Bangladesh’s legal framework prohibits much of this. The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 sets the minimum employment age at 14 and prohibits hazardous work for those below 18. The Children Act, 2013 defines a child as anyone under 18. The country also adopted the National Child Labour Elimination Policy 2010 and a domestic workers’ policy in 2015. Yet enforcement remains the central challenge.

Political commitments have continued. On December 1, 2025, 12 major political parties signed a Child Rights Manifesto coordinated by UNICEF, pledging to eliminate hazardous child labour and ensure nine years of free, quality and compulsory education. The BNP’s 2026 election manifesto also proposed a Tk 2,500 monthly Family Card for low-income families, alongside school meals and skills-based education.

With 2030 approaching, the challenge is no longer simply making commitments. It is ensuring that laws, social protection and education policies reach children working beyond the state’s effective reach-before another childhood is traded for a day’s wage.