Speakers at an event called for making Children-friendly upazila to ensure the rights of children, including education and quality life for them.
In order to achieve the objective of Children-friendly upazila, it is needed to eradicate child labour from all agriculture supply chain and ensure education and quality life for them, they said, calling for collaboration among all the stakeholders in this regard.
They remarked while addressing an opinion exchange meeting in Morelganj Upazila Conference Room in Bagerhat district for formulating plan of action aimed at making Children-friendly upazilas in Shoronkhola and Morelganj upazilas of Bagerhat district. Under the ‘Addressing Child Labour in Agricultural Supply Chain-Global to Local project’, INCIDIN Bangladesh organized the opinion exchange meeting with Upazila Child Labour Monitoring Committee (UCLMC) and members of Upazila Shishu Kalyan Board today (Thursday).
At the meeting, Morelganj upazila administration officials pledged to play their due role for building child-friendly upazila in their area.
In their speeches, the speakers underscored on strengthening the activities of district and upazila level Shishu Kalyan Board and monitoring child labour situation in non-formal sector.
Citing a study report (2011), the speakers said a huge number of children were engaged in collecting shrimp fry in the coastal district.
The event was told that the child workers work in hazardous condition for 9 to 13 hours in a day, which put them to health risk and also hamper their education.
Stressing on a children-friendly upazila, the speakers hoped that it would help ensure the better future of children by ensuring their rights.
Md. Jahangir Alam, Morelganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer and president of Child Labour Monitoring Committee; attended it as the chief guest.
Md. Shah-E-Alam Sachhu, Chairman of Morelganj Upazila Parishad and Advisor of the committee; Mozammel Haque Mozam, Vice Chairman of Morelganj Upazila Parishad; Fahima Khanom, Vice Chairman of Morelganj Upazila Pariszhad; attended the meeting.
Md. Rafiqual Islam Khan, Manager (Programme and Legal Support) of INCIDIN Bangladesh; Programme Coordinator Rafiul Ali; local government officials and Civil Society activists were also present.
Sheikh Asaduzzaman, Executive Director of Udayan Bagerhat, conducted the meeting.
