The photo shows two school students who have become child-labourers in corona period. photo: observer
Students have been sent to physical work to support their hard-stripped families.
Mostly needy families have sent their school-going children to work.
Amid coronavirus pandemic, all educational institutions are closed across the country. Both teachers and students have fallen in disarray.
According to field sources, also amid the corona pandemic, daily earnings of the poor families have declined.
A visit to different areas including haats-bazaars and roads, many school children were found doing hard work. A section of people running tea stall, hotel, workshop, and grocery are also employing them.
A school child Joy Sukumar Sarkar, son of Jaru Sarkar in Kalikapur Village, said, his father is a day-earner. He is elder among two brothers and one daughter. Their family runs on father’s lone daily earning.
As the school is closed, his family has sent him to a clothes shop. Joy Kumar said, “I read in Class II in Kalikapur Government Primary School. To reduce family hardship, I am doing work in the shop. I’ll go to school after opening.”
Safi is in Class IV. He is now an auto-van driver at Omarpur bus stand. He said, “We are very poor. By driving auto-van, I earn Tk 200-300 per day. My father works in other people’s houses. My daily earning makes a pleasing support to our family.”
Another boy, Rusel Ahmed is selling salt in different haats and bazaars in the upazila. He said, “I am in Class VII at Satish Chandra Technical School. We have a five-member family. My father works in Dhaka. His earning is not enough to maintain our family. As the school is closed, I am selling salt to earn some money to support family.”
Head teacher of Nandigram Government Model Primary School Ali Azam said, hardship has appeared in some families of low-income people due to corona. Family guardians are hiccupping to bear essential expenditures. That is why, they are engaging their children in labour work for some extra money.
To get these children back to school, both teachers and guardians are to play special role, he opined.
President of Nandigram Press Club Nazmul Huda Sarkar said, corona has put the low-income people in hardship. At the same time, due to long time closing of schools, these families are also thinking to get their children into works, he observed. Guardians should be conscious, he added.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sharmin Akhtar said, necessary measures will be taken about these children after monitoring through the education division.
