Background:

National Surveys indicate that 13 per cent of the country‟s children between the ages of 5 and 14 years are working, amounting to nearly 5 Million child labourers. The rates of child labour are higher among boys than girls (17.5 per cent versus 8.1 per cent) and slightly higher among children living in rural areas relatives to those in urban areas. Forty-five per cent of child labourers do not attend school. Child labour is higher among children of urban slum (UNICEF, 2016, Situation Assessment and Analysis of Children and Women in Bangladesh) The National Child Labour Survey estimate that about 1.3 Million children were engaged in domestic child labour.. Employers of children rarely consider the compensation they provide to child domestic workers or their families as the fulfilment of duies to the children, nor do they see the children as rights holders entitled to claim their due right to fair treatment and education. Domestic work through engaging children is one such a work characterized by its marginality, insibility and vulnerability. The majority of child domestic works are child girls. Most of them are live in other peoples homes and are in total isolation, often confronting violence away from the eyes of public. They are beaten tortured punished and deprived from basis children rights. BISAP has been implementing Basic Education for un-schooled and dropout needy children of Urban Slum 6-10 years for their further growth and development Child domestic workers are migrant from different districts of Bangladesh due to poverty their parent who do not effort them for their livelihood they came in search of job and become house slave. The project will emphasize the mental, physical and social development of child domestic workers through creating an area based safety net and to develop replicable working approaches which will ultimately help to determine a National policy toward child domestic workers.

The project will be implemented the leading person of the community will be more responsible towards the protection of child domestic workers as well as the working condition of child domestic workers will improve and protected. Best practices of the employers towards child domestic workers will be ensured by the community. Necessary measure will be adopted on the effect of slavery and slavery like working environment. Therefore, is no way of creating better environment for the child domestic workers for their survival. The proposed project will create positive change in their life and livelihood through joint intervention both employer and domestic worker who are passing their life in inhuman condition from generation to generation.

According to the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Special Provisions) Act, 2000 amended in 2003 penalizes, among others, the following crimes of violence against women and children, but girls from the poor families are not getting fair judgment. Over hundred girl victims committed suicide in protesting this.

The Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006 has replaced the Employment of Children’s Act, 1938, Factories Act, 1965 and The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act, 1933. It provides for Prohibition on engagement of children below 14 years of age and adolescents between 14-18

32 years in any profession or institution. But many children have to work for bread earning instead of going to schools.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that everyone has the right to a standard of living, adequate health and well being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.

The Children Act, 1974 is the principal law that provides for care, protection and treatment of children – both as victims and as accused – and specifies the empowerment of children as its first guiding principle. Its main objectives are to ensure children’s protection and treatment.

It imposes various duties and obligations upon the state, like trail of children in separate court, protect confidentiality assess children’s age, circumstance, character and probation, officer’s report , if necessary send the child in correction home, but not in jail, discharge child after due admonition or release on probation under probation officer’s or parent/guardian’s supervision, Police to be responsible for keeping children in a safe place, informing parents and probation officers, rescuing them from harmful situations. But those are not properly maintained by the police and or court.

Government is the Principle duty bearers to protect the rights, and civil societies have responsibility / obligation to raise voice, if the children are deprived. But the civil societies are not strongly voice the issue.

Children themselves as Rights holder can claim for proper use of law, implementation of law and the recommendations made in the concluding observation of the state party report of the government to the Child rights committee in UN. So Children group will be formed, trained on their rights and advocacy skills, so that they can claim their rights from the duty bearers and get support from civil society to raise their common voices.

Formation of Civil Society Watch Group (in participation of different actors of the civil society) will be the main thrust of the project. This watch group will monitor the child rights situation and support child groups in claiming their rights to the duty bearers in organised manner and act as lobbyist for the promotion of child rights.

The problem was identified through local discussion forum group meeting, networking & sharing with local elite, ward commissioner, media news, information from police station, Guardian, their relative and other sources , based on the grievances of the victims BISAP feel it necessary to designed this proposed project .