So I thought after my experiences with war affected children in Uganda, the child rights abuses that I would experience in Bangladesh wouldn’t affect me so much – boy was I wrong!
Today I went to another school for child labourers that our organisation runs. It was a great visit as the children were really inquisitive about Australia - and I had a hard time answering some of the questions (e.g. – Do children work in Australia? Are the poor people in Australia as poor as us?, etc). The children also asked me to sing an Australian song – and having the worst singing voice of anyone I know – I was compelled to comply – aah. The song I chose… “Give me a home among the gumtrees” (with actions). I asked them questions about their work – and most said they worked about 4 hours a day, mainly in sari designing although this young fella told me he sometimes worked as a welder…
After visiting the school, some of the kids directed me to go in the door across the alleyway – where there were 2 rooms of kids working. They were doing design work on material that is going to be used for ladies shoes – one bead at a time. What surprised me the most about the situation was that they didn’t try to hide anything from me – I thought the older workers may have tried to hide the younger kids from me – but they all spoke very openly and honestly about the situation.
The story that got me the most was of this young boy:
He is 8 years old and has been working for over a year. He works 10 hour days, six days a week, and gets paid a measly 50 Taka a week – less than one Aussie dollar.
What I think I find the hardest is how child labour is such a normal part of society here. And it’s such a complex issue – how can you blame parents who send their children to work when they rely on that income to survive (it is estimated that children provide ~38% of a family’s income in the Bihari camps).
I
certainly have my work cut out for me!!
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