Bangladesh: Over three million children trapped in child labour, one in two girls suffer child marriage

Over three million children in Bangladesh are trapped in child labour of which 1.3 million are in hazardous forms of Child Labour. One in five children do not complete primary school. Nearly half of children don’t have birth registration. Over 1 lakh children are in institutional care and lack family support. One in every two girls is made to marry while still a child. This was revealed in a survey jointly conducted in all the 64 districts of the country by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF.

In order to tackle the Child protection related issues in the country, the Government of Bangladesh announced that it will triple the number of social workers from 3000 to 9000. The government commitment came up after the National Household Survey revealed that 45 million children, constituting 89 percent of the total, are regularly subjected to physical and psychological violence at home.
UNICEF country representative in Bangladesh Sheldon Yett congratulated the government for the dramatic increase in the number of social workers to help benefit from critical professional care.

Inaugurating the event symposium conducted in Dhaka on Monday, on the theme of Child Protection in Bangladesh jointly organised by the UNICEF and European Union, Prime MInister Sheikh Hasina in her video message said that the government aims to build a professional social service workforce to enhance efficient delivery of child protection services such as helpline 1098, Child protection allowance and community based outreach services.

Head of the EU delegation to Bangladesh, Ambassador Charles Whiteley said that the EU remains committed to supporting the Government to strengthen child protection systems in Bangladesh.

The event was also attended by Minister of Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira,, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Zahid Maleque, Minister of Social Welfare Nuruzzaman Ahmed, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Tazul Islam, and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif of the High Court Division, Bangladesh Supreme Court, who is also a member of the Supreme Special Committee on Child Rights.