page_title: Child labour in Bangladesh
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Child labour in Bangladesh / Causes and impact / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: Boys going for a bath after working in a sindur factory. Found them behind Mitfordh Hospital in Old Dhaka.
context_page_description: Child labour in Bangladesh is common, with 4.7 million children aged 5 to 14 in the work force. Out of the child labourers engaged in the work force, 83% are employed in rural areas and 17% are employed in urban areas. Child labour can be found in agriculture, poultry breeding, fish processing, the garment sector and the leather industry, as well as in shoe production. Children are involved in jute processing, the production of candles, soap and furniture. They work in the salt industry, the production of asbestos, bitumen, tiles and ship breaking.
  In 2006, Bangladesh passed a Labour Law setting the minimum legal age for employment as 14. Nevertheless, the enforcement of such labour laws is virtually impossible in Bangladesh because 93% of child labourers are employed in the informal sector such as small factories and workshops, on the street, in home-based businesses and domestic employment.
  Despite the prevalence of child labour in Bangladesh, there has been an increase in legislation against child labour. Bangladesh has ratified, the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. In addition, the country also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
context_section_description: The demographics of the population in Bangladesh can also be a predictor of child labour incidence rates. Children in rural areas are more likely to work than children in urban areas. This may be due to the agricultural history of Bangladesh and the tradition of children working alongside adults in the fields. However, in both rural and urban settings, boys are more likely to work than girls, with the majority of child workers falling in the age range of 12–14.
  Family dynamics also contributed to child labour incidence rates. Children in households with a large proportion of adults in the family are less likely to work. Children in households where all adults are working are more likely to work. Children in households where there is a larger portion of paid adult workers are even more likely to work. These findings by Salmon (2005) indicate that children act as a source of income generation because households that maximise all human capital tend to be households that have incidences of child labour.
caption: Boys covered with mercury-containing red vermilion chemical during child labour in a factory producing sindoor.
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