Causes of Child Labor in Bangladesh: A Case Study in the City of Dhaka

Abstract

Prevalence of Child Labor is a common phenomenon in most of the least developed and developing countries, and Bangladesh is no exception. Instead of going to schools and passing the childhood days with joy, many children are compelled to work for their family and livelihood. The essential goal of this investigation is to identify and analyze the causes of child labor in Bangladesh. This study has also been conducted to evaluate the opinions of the child laborers and reflect their situation by their views on different questions. The most significant part of this study is to present the condition of child labor in Bangladesh and identify the major causes that are influencing this harmful practice still in this 21^st century in Bangladesh. This study has used both the primary & secondary sources of data to identify & analyze the causes of child labor in Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire has been used to collect the primary data from children working in different working fields within Dhaka city, and the number of respondents was 30. By using the factor analysis method with the help of the software “Stata” this study has derived some useful construct like – “Adherence” & “Economic Discrimination” which include some significant variables like – reluctance of the parents due to the increased cost of education, unawareness of the families, employers’ reluctance to obey the labor law & inequity of income distribution respectively. All these variables have a strong correlation with their respective constructs and these two constructs or can be termed as two significant causes of child labor explain 73.40% of the study. Government and relative stakeholders can take necessary measures to remove the problem of adherence & economic imbalance of the nation to build a country where all the children will get the things that they deserve. Thus, Bangladesh can become a country of enriched human capital as well as a country of happiness and peace.

Keywords:  Child labor, Adherence, Economic Discrimination, Bangladesh