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After four failed projects over the past decade aimed at eliminating hazardous child labour, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has proposed a new Tk 9.81 billion project to withdraw 0.1 million children from labour and ensure their rehabilitation.
The "Child Labour Elimination and Rehabilitation" project's cost is approximately 3.45 times higher than that of the "Bangladesh Eradication of Hazardous Child Labour (4th Phase)", which was implemented over six years and a half from January 2018 to June 2024 at a cost of Tk 2.85 billion.
Planning Commission officials said Tk 3.65 billion - over 37 per cent of the cost - has been proposed as cash grants for beneficiaries, and Tk 3.15 billion (32 per cent) for training wages.
The Industry and Energy Division of the commission recently held a Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) meeting to review the proposal and decided to return the Development Project Proposal (DPP) to the labour ministry, requesting justification for the costs of certain components.
The meeting chaired by Md Ruhul Amin, member (secretary) of the division, also sought the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division's (IMED) assessment reports on previous projects to evaluate their outcomes.
The proposal lacks necessary inputs and has potential duplication of project areas, excessive costs in several components, inconsistencies in procurement plans, and an unrealistic timeline for project activities, reveal the meeting minutes.
The PEC noted that the project proposed purchasing 17 vehicles worth Tk 68.5 million, despite a government directive prohibiting vehicle procurement under development projects.
Moreover, excessive allocations were proposed for consultancy services, publicity, surveys, and software development, which the PEC deemed irrational and instructed to revise.
The committee further recommended excluding foreign tours from the project, rationalising the proposed expenditures, using government institutions instead of non-government organisations for non-formal education activities, and focusing child labour surveys on industrial areas instead of all upazilas.
Officials said the government implemented four development projects over the last decade to eliminate child labour with the aim of rehabilitating more than 0.2 million children engaged in hazardous work.
However, the National Child Labour Survey 2022 conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows that Bangladesh made little progress in reducing hazardous forms of child labour over the past decade, although the overall number of working children has increased.
Between 2013 and 2022, the number of working children rose from 3.45 million to 3.53 million, pushing up the proportion of working children from 8.7 per cent to 8.9 per cent.
The number of children engaged in hazardous labour - a particularly harmful subset involving dangerous tasks or environments - fell from 1.28 million in 2013 to 1.07 million in 2022.
At the same time, the share of children involved in general child labour (both hazardous and non-hazardous) remained almost unchanged, moving slightly up from 4.3 per cent to 4.4 per cent.
The number of children in non-hazardous labour grew notably, from around 0.42 million to over 0.71 million, indicating a shift from more dangerous to relatively safer work.
Experts acknowledge that the increase in the overall number of working children remains a serious concern, especially as Bangladesh strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating all forms of child labour by 2025.
Dr Mustafa K Mujeri, former director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, stressed that the data highlights the urgent need for stronger interventions, including broader access to formal education, vocational training, and targeted social protection programmes, to both prevent child labour and rehabilitate those already involved.
"Without clearly defined objectives and prior assessments, implementing projects alone will not be enough to eliminate child labour," he said.
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