A 14-year-old child was hanging up raw sea fish on a bamboo frame to dry in the scorching sun at the ‘Mayer Doa’ mahal. These fish, washed, cut, cleaned and treated with salt and turmeric, will become ‘shutki’ or dried fish. The dried fish production areas are locally referred to as ‘mahal’. This child works at a ‘mahal’ in Nazirartek, well known is the Cox’s Bazar pourashava for dried fish.
These little workers are paid less because they are children. But when it comes to work hours, there is no compromise, no matter how young they may be. Just like their adult co-workers, they work for 12 hours, starting from 6 in the morning.
There are thousands of such children working at the Nazirartek dried fish zones seven kilometers away from Cox’s Bazar town. In order to help ends meet in the family, many of these children have joined their parents in the dried fish industry. During a visit to a few of the mahals from 10am till 1pm on 1 December, Prothom Alo saw the children at work.
The country’s largest dried fish production area, ‘Nazirartek shutki mahal’ comprises 16 coastal villages including Kutubdiapara, Samitypara, Fadnardale, Nuniachhata and Mostaikapara in wards 1 and 2 of Cox’s Bazar pourashava. Raw fish are being dried in the sun in at least 600 mahals of various sizes.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, panel mayor of Cox’s Bazar pourashava and councilor of wards 1, 2 and 3 (reserved-1), Shaheen Akhter, said there are at least 20,000 workers employed in the 600 mahals. When dried fish production increases, child labour increases too. Presently there are at least 12,000 women, 8,500 men and 2,500 children involved in dried food processing work.
A research report prepared by an NGO on the dried fish processing industry also reveals this picture of child labour. The report states that 41 per cent of the children working in the dried fish industry are below the age of 14.
The research was carried out in Cox’s Bazar Sadar and Maheshkhali upazila by Sustainable Upliftment Initiative Trust (SUIT) with assistance from the US-based development agency Winrock International. A number of teachers from various faculties of Chittagong University were involved in the research. The research was carried out from October last year till January this year. There are 561 dried fish plants in these two upazilas.
According the study, around 14,366 workers were employed there. Of them, 2,876, that is 20 per cent, were children, 63 per cent were women, and the rest were men. Among the children, 59 per cent were aged between 14 and 17. Girls outnumbered boys among the child workers, comprising 72 per cent of the child labour there. During the research, 461 children were interviewed.
In the last amendment (2018) of the Labour Act 2006, there have been changes in the definition and age of child workers. In the definition, ‘adolescent’ has been used instead of ‘child’, where an adolescent means from 14 years above, but not completing 18. The directorate of inspection for factories and establishments of the labour and employment ministry said that recommendations had been made on 30 November to classify child labour in dry fish production as hazardous labour.
Feeding the family
A 12-year-old child at the Rahman Enterprise mahal, next to the Mayer Doa mahal, washes fish and prepares these to be dried. A few years ago, while they were living in the hilly area of Chokoria upazila, a leech had entered his father’s ear and he fell seriously ill. His mother divorced his father, remarried and went away. This child then took responsibility of the family and came to Nazirartek along with his father and two younger brothers. He took up dried fish processing work. He said unless he worked, his father and two brothers would go hungry.
Of the children, 86 per cent had to fill baskets with raw fish and carry heavy loads, 53 per cent worked with sharp implements, 44 per cent had to spend most of their work time in water and mud, 32 per cent had to climb rickety ladders and 31 per cent had to work with hazardous chemicals
Children in hazardous work, internal migration
According to the Winrock-SUIT study, children were seen engaged in hazardous tasks of the dried fish industry. Of the children, 86 per cent had to fill baskets with raw fish and carry heavy loads, 53 per cent worked with sharp implements, 44 per cent had to spend most of their work time in water and mud, 32 per cent had to climb rickety ladders and 31 per cent had to work with hazardous chemicals.
Associate professor of economics at Chittagong University Mohammad Nurun Nabi was involved in the research on child labour in the dried fish processing industry. He said there were push factors that brought children to work in such a hazardous industry. He said that the families of these children were extremely marginalised. The families had come to live by the dried fish villages, having left their homes due to river erosion and poverty. There were more girls in this industry because boys managed to find employment elsewhere. The owners of the plants said that the women were unwilling to work unless their children could join too. That was why they couldn’t stop child labour even if they wanted to.
The study report said that 78 per cent of the children had come from internal migration. The families of these children had come from various districts and upazilas to settle in the government khas land near the dried fish areas.
Cox’s Bazar panel mayor Shaheen Akhter told Prothom Alo, 80 per cent of the children working at the dried fish processing plants were from Rangpur, Barishal and Noakhali districts. The rest were from Kutubdia, Maheshkhali, Pekua and Chokoria upazilas of Cox’s Bazar. Most of the workers were climate refugees. Losing their homesteads in natural calamities, they had come to settle at the Nazirartek coast. There are around 10 to 12 villages around the dried fish mahals where the dried fish workers and their families live.
Less wages, but mistreated too
A visit to the dried fish mahals revealed that men received a daily wage of Tk 700, working for 12 hours from morning till evening. Women received half the wage, Tk 350. And children were paid from Tk 250 to Tk 300.
Though they (the children) are engaged in hazardous labour, there is a lack of gloves, masks, waterproof caps and such protective gear. The child workers often complain of bad headaches, skin problems, backaches and muscle pain, cuts, fever and so on
Project director of Winrock International’s CLIMB project, AHM Zaman Khan, said that child labour was not stopping due to the propensity to make higher profit at lesser wages. He said, they can get work done for lesser wages if they engage child labour. The owners employ children to make more profits in the competitive market. He stressed the need to make stronger efforts at a local and national level to end child labour and to mobilise public awareness.
The study report said that a child worker had to work over 10 hours a day. They have to work for at least 5 hours a day under the scorching sun. Many children are forced to work in the ‘shutki mahals’. Their parents may have taken advance payment from the owners or they had been appointed on agreement that their children won’t leave their jobs on their own accord. Also, 29 per cent of the children have said they have been physically mistreated at their workplace, while 34 per of the girls complained of sexual harassment.
Though they are engaged in hazardous labour, there is a lack of gloves, masks, waterproof caps and such protective gear. The child workers often complain of bad headaches, skin problems, backaches and muscle pain, cuts, fever and so on.
Winrock International’s civic engagement and capacity development specialist Md Tanvir Sharif said these children work directly under the sun for 9 to 10 hours. They work with water for long and develop sores between their fingers.
As Winrock International’s media partner, Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programmes (BCCP) is involved in campaigning against child labour in the dried fish processing industry.
BCCP director and chief executive officer Muhammad Shahjahan said there are many challenges to preventing child labour and so the right message must be delivered to the right place. This must be understood by the child workers, their parents, the owners of the industries and the policymakers. If effective solutions are to be brought about, the problem must be examined deeply and a long-term programme must be taken up to resolve the problem.
Team leader of the BCCP-CLIMB project, Abu Hasib Mustafa Jamal, said many children are obliged to work in unhygienic conditions due to poverty. And during the coronavirus pandemic, these children are in an even more precarious situation.
Classify as hazardous
According to the 2003 child labour survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, there are 1.7 million children employed in labour in the country. Of them, 1.28 million are engaged in hazardous labour.
On 5 March 2013, the ministry for labour and employment published a list of 38 types of work categorized as hazardous, that obstructed the physical, mental and moral growth of working people, including children. Dried fish production was not on the list. After a few meetings this year, the central committee for child labour of the factories and establishments inspection directorate recommended that the dried fish production industry be categorized as hazardous for children.
Joint inspector general of the factories and establishments inspection directorate, Mustafizur Rahman, said the recommendation had been sent on 30 November to the ministry. He is also a member of the central committee for child labour. He told Prothom Alo, children are meant to be in school, not at work. Various steps were being taken to remove these children from work and bring their families under the social safety net and also to ensure these children could be brought back to work at the end of their education. He said, the government wants to end hazardous child labour by 2021. The government aims at ending child labour in all sectors by 2025.
*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir