Saturday, April 26, 2008

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Save our Children from Tobbacco ( Cigarrete) Factories.

Socio-economic background-a brief overview
Despite sustainable economic growth rate in the last successive years, Bangladesh is still categorized as poor country being half of all children are chronologically malnourished. Poverty endangers susceptibility and vulnerability, particularly for the children, at family and economic levels. The structural poverty, as it appears today, have plunged millions of children into extreme poverty.

Job is very much scared for the people particularly poor low skilled labor class in general and women and children in particular and are very much vulnerable to many respects.

Apart from major bidi producing districts elsewhere in the country, there are two well known factories named Karikor and Sultani Bidi employs nearly 3000 regular labors in their 5 branches in Barisal sadar. The consequential effect of river erosion, widespread poverty adds miseries to the huge number of people landless, migrants and is often vulnerable to social insecurity, and risk of being trafficked. Many of the workers engaged in bidi industry are the erosion-victims.
The workers in these factories are coming from neighboring villages. The hazardous conditions in bidi factory and the exploitation of children by adult workers as well as the absence of trade unions makes it clear that there is none to represent them and children are unable to take their grievances to the authorities. As those factories are located in City Corporation but actually in village vicinity, many children are found to be working with their parents and with adult.

Because of joblessness, subsistence economic situation, acute poverty at family level, many children in the neighboring villages are not found going to school. Thus illiteracy seems to be one of the major contributors for increasing child labor in the program area. An overwhelming majority of the adult workers, in many cases the parents of child bidi workers, have reportedly stopped schooling at early ages for economic reasons. In addition parents also believe the education does not bring immediate benefits, rather incurs substantial long term investment that can be easily utilized for immediate family subsistence.

The incidence of malnutrition and health related problems are also high among the working children for bidi industries.

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