Child Labor in the Jamdani industry

from the Daily Star

This explores child labor to make high end clothing. Jamdani is the type of fabric used. - Kale

Children from very poor families are falling victim to slave labour in the thriving Jamdani industry of the country as weavers are exploiting poor children as young as five years old.

Poverty and hunger is pushing many parents to send away their children to work in the industry -- a handicraft legacy we are proud of as our heritage -- in return for little or no wages.

While many in the world scream out for fair trade, refusing to buy 'cheaper' products that come out of a third world production unit akin to slavery, many children are losing their childhood here in our own country to weave the fine Jamdani material that is sold as higher end products in the clothes markets.

A recent visit to a Jamdani production village, Noapara, under Rupganj upazila found that most Jamdani weavers are children between the ages of five and 10. These children work from dawn till 8:00 in the night, mostly in return for extremely low wages, if not for food alone.

The employers claim that a very young and tender age is the proper time for training for this industry as the youngsters can pick up lessons very quickly.

Badrul Alam, an employer, said, "The prime criterion behind selecting such young children is that they abide their employers in this difficult training without a protest."

According to UN convention, all forms of child labour is prohibited below 18 years of age. The Children Act 1974 of Bangladesh declares child labour illegal under 14 years of age. The project coordinator of Street Children Programme of Aparajeyo-Bangladesh, Altaf Hossain Salim, however points out that few pay heed to this law in our country.

Most of the children working in Rupganj are from nearby districts of Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Barisal and Chandpur. The dire poverty in those areas compels the parents to make their children work and Jamdani weavers exploit the child labourers in this process.

In typical practice, employers take on children, sometimes as young as five years old, as apprentices for two years to teach them how to weave. During this learning period the children are not paid anything but provided food and clothes. They are also given Tk 20 as pocket money every week.

They are allowed to visit their parents during the two Eid festivals in a year.

On completion of the apprenticeship period, the child labourers are employed for two further years on bondage. For this period the employers strike an agreement with the children's parents, usually for three to ten thousand taka depending on the child's age and experience. They pay half of this amount in one instalment to the parents.

The child labourer gets paid the remaining half on completion of his contract.

One Jamdani maker, who employs children, explained the basis for the wages to The Daily Star, "During the apprenticeship period a child tends to make a lot of mistakes so we have to make up for the damage to our production, so we do not pay the children."

According to Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) statistics, there were 17 thousand Jamdani looms in the villages of Noapara, Rupshi, Tarabo, Khalpar under Tarabo union alone in 1947, with every family owning one.

After 1971, the number of looms fell to around nine thousand in 17 villages under Rupganj and Siddhirganj upazilas.

A BSCIC survey in 1999 found the number of looms to be 2,845, which fell to 2,519 in 2002. The number of Jamdani weavers in these villages is now 5,669.

Azizur Rahman, 36, a weaver from Noapara, is a plot owner at the Jamdani Industrial Estate and has been involved with the Jamdani industry for the last 30 years. He inherited the trade from his father.

He has a son and a daughter but is not interested to involve his son with Jamdani weaving because of the hardships of the trade.

Aziz said, "I went through so much hardship and yet I could not develop the quality of my life, so I don't want my child in this trade. I want my son to add quality to his life.”

Mustakim, a 12 years old child labourer from Kishoreganj has been working as a weaver for the past five years with a unit on the Jamdani Industrial estate.

He begins a typical day at 6:00am in the morning that often ends at 8:00pm.

"Sometimes I work for a straight 24 hours according to need, especially if my employer gets large orders," he said.

The children who work at the looms remain seated there all their working hours. They have to remain bent over their work at all times. They are not allowed to leave their looms, other than for lunch break and toilet, during these hours.

"On the first year of my apprenticeship I used to hurt all over my body at the end of a day's work, I especially had cramps in my legs and severe back pain," Mustakim said.

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