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The Princess Royal, Anne, to meet large businesses

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November 21, 2000 

Dhaka-- (UNB)- The Princess Royal, Anne, president of Save the Children UK, will meet Bangladesh's large businesses to seek their support in combating the worst forms of child labour as part of a global campaign.

Princess Anne, who is coming here today (Tuesday), would seek to develop better safety standards in smaller businesses that employ huge working children.

The UK's leading international children's development agency, in association with the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), will also launch a practical guide, titled "Big Business, Small Hands: Responsible Approaches to Child Labour" for the business community on tackling child labour.

The exact number of working children in Bangladesh is unknown, but official estimates say around 6 million children are engaged in productive work in both formal and informal sectors.

Save the Children, that has over 10 years' experience in supporting child workers in Bangladesh, believes that complete elimination of child labour is not possible in the country since poverty forces them to go to work.

Any quick attempt for eradication of child labour under international pressure may rather be more detrimental to children if child labour issue is not understood in its proper perspective, it says.

But it may be possible to remove children from extremely hazardous occupations by either improving their present working conditions or supporting them to find less hazardous jobs.

Large businesses can help the shaping of national opinion to recognise most hazardous and exploitative forms of child labour and find out practical alternatives to the children, their families and employers.

It feels a consensus and a commitment on the part of the government, large and smaller businesses, NGOs and the key sectors of the civil society is needed for a national attempt to tackle the most hazardous forms of child labour.

"By focussing hazardous jobs, we're trying to make a consensus of all," Save the Children UK's Bangladesh Programme Director Martine Billanou said at a media briefing Sunday.

She said the presence of the Princess Royal would give the issue the place it deserves on the media.

Although business leaders and key influential people seemed remain silent after removing child labour from Bangladesh's garment industry, Martine felt elimination strategies in few export-oriented sectors did not bring a significant reduction of hazardous child labour.

The number of children working in the informal sectors is much bigger than those employed in formal export-oriented sectors and they are doing more hazardous jobs, she told newsmen.

Moreover, many of the children eliminated from garment sector were engaged in the informal sectors and doing more unsafe jobs, she pointed out.

She said the experience of the Harkin Bill and the garment industry clearly demonstrated that child labour is a complex issue and attempt to eradicate it would be of less use without a better understanding of the situation.

She said the British organisation works to focus on occupations that are more unsafe than that in the garment industry and convince the employers to better the working conditions for the children.

Large businesses can help smaller ones to improve the situation, she said.

Latifur Rahman, president of MCCI that cooperated with Save the Children in preparing the guide, said, " The genesis of the problem being poverty, over-enthusiasm or missteps in tackling child labour can force children to leave employment in the workplaces but take up other undesirable professions or do more hazardous works."

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