| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation undertakes a rigorous and multidimensional analysis of child labour in
Bangladesh, scrutinizing its persistence through the lenses of domestic legislation, international
legal obligations, and underlying socio-economic factors. Although Bangladesh’s constitution
explicitly prohibits child labour and the country has enacted numerous laws to curb the practice,
systemic weaknesses in enforcement especially within the vast informal economy allow
exploitation to persist. Deep-rooted cultural normalization, entrenched poverty, limited access to
quality education, and institutional inefficiencies collectively sustain child labour, systematically
violating children’s fundamental rights to health, safety, education, and holistic development.
The study critically assesses Bangladesh’s adherence to key international standards, including
the ILO Minimum Age Convention (No. 138) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
(No. 182), as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It identifies significant
discrepancies between legal commitments and practical implementation, particularly in
monitoring, reporting, and accountability mechanisms. Employing a mixed-methodological
approach combining doctrinal legal analysis, comparative policy review, and empirical field
research the investigation reveals systemic obstacles such as ambiguous statutory definitions of
child labour, under-resourced labour inspections, deeply ingrained socio-cultural attitudes that
trivialize children’s work, and the destabilizing effects of unplanned urbanization on vulnerable
communities. | en_US |
