Born To Work: Inside The Brutal Lives of Child Workers

More than 7 million children are forced to make a living in Bangladesh, often in appalling conditions. Photographer GMB Akash of Panos Pictures has captured the haunting images of children and adolescents hard at work.

G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---1_v4g4h4 — Children remain one of the most vulnerable groups in Bangladesh, living under threats of hunger, illiteracy, displacement, exploitation, trafficking, and physical and mental abuse. Although the issue of child labor is perennially discussed, there has been hardly any remarkable progress.

More that 17 percent of all Bangladeshi children between 5 and 15 are engaged in economic activities. Many of these children work in hazardous occupations such as manufacturing. Factory owners prefer to employ children as they can pay them less and keep their factories free from trade unionism. A child laborer gets 400 to 700 taka (less than $10) per month, while an adult worker earns up to 5,000 taka per month.

In this picture, the owner of a textile factory is beating a 12-year old child laborer.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---2_twfsfw — Ten-year-old Shaifur works in a door-lock factory in Old Dhaka. Unlike his colleague, Shaifur works without a mask. It is common in Bangladesh for children of poor parents to work in various hazardous and labor-intensive workplaces to support their families.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---3_nycp34 — A child working in a silver cooking pot factory.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---4_wlgv3d — Children are among the workers carrying bricks on their heads at a brick factory.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---5_c3mrvr — Eight-year-old Razu works in a rickshaw factory for 10 hours a day. When production stops due to lack of electricity, he has time to play.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---8_g2irhy — A young laborer making metal components at a factory.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---9_eofuhc — A child worker at a brick-making factory in Fatullah near Dhaka. The workers come from the rural area of Gaibandha, and work at the brick factory until June, when the monsoon season stops work at the factory, and they return to their homes. For each thousand bricks they carry, they earn the equivalent of 90 cents.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---7_ibiidb — Children unloading gas bottles from a ship.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---6_prnxep — Eight-year-old Alamin wears a policeman's shoe, which he found among the piles of waste on Kajla rubbish dump. It is one of three landfill sites in this city of 12 million people. Around 5,000 tons of garbage are dumped here each day and over a thousand people work among the rubbish, sorting through the waste and collecting items to sell to retailers for recycling.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---10_kx6ghm — Child working in a textile factory in Dhaka.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---11_psxgqh — A young girl working in a brick crushing factory in Dhaka.
G.M.B. Akash

galleries/2009/10/21/born-to-work-inside-the-brutal-lives-of-child-workers/akash-child-labor---12_c60jcs — Shilu works separating sand and stone. At least 10,000 people, including 2,500 women and over 1,000 children, are engaged in stone and sand collection from the Bhollar Ghat on the banks of the Piyain river. Building materials such as stone and sand, and the cement which is made from it, are in short supply in Bangladesh, and command a high price from building contractors. The average income is around 150 taka (less than $2) a day.
G.M.B. Akash

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