57. PROTECTION AGAINST ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND HAZARDOUS WORK The BNHRC highlights that the Constitution provides that one of the fundamental aims of the Government of Bangladesh is to secure for all citizens a society free from exploitation.75 The Constitution further envisages that the economic system of the country will be free from exploitation76 and makes it a fundamental responsibility of the Government to emancipate peasants, workers and backward sections of society from all forms of exploitation. 77 58. Notwithstanding the Constitutional stipulations, the BNHRC recognizes that child labour is a reality in Bangladesh. The BNHRC is also conscious of the fact that children coming from the poorest households were more likely to be engaged in the labour force and not attending school than children in households with the highest levels of per capita expenditure (9.3 vs. 4.1 per cent). These findings were consistent between boys (12.3 vs. 5.6 per cent) and girls (6.3 vs. 2.4 per cent). The percentage of children from the lowest-expenditure households that attended school without working was 72.8 as compared to 84.7 in the richest households. Among working children aged between 5-14, approximately three out of every five were employed in the agricultural sector, 14.7 per cent were employed in the industrial sector and the remaining 23.3 per cent work in services. Girls were more likely than boys to be employed in the industrial sector (17.8 vs. 13.5 per cent) and less likely to be employed in services (18.2 vs. 25.2 per cent). A high percentage of working children aged between 5 and 14 were employed as unpaid family workers (62.4 per cent in the case of boys and 80.7 per cent in the case of girls). More working boys (36.5 per cent) than girls (18.2 per cent) were either salaried or self-employed.78 59. A major cause for the high incidence of child labour in Bangladesh is that children are considered to provide cheap, docile, undemanding, unskilled labour. By employing children on very low wages, employers are able to maximize their profits. The National Child Labour Survey 2002-03 data shows that 82 per cent of child workers in Bangladesh did not get the same wage rate as adults in Bangladesh (BBS 2003). According to the baseline survey produced on hazardous child labour sectors (BBS 2005), some of the major reasons given by employers for employing children in hazardous conditions was that parents requested them to employ their child (39per cent) and because they were able to pay low wages (22.5per cent).79 60. Bangladesh was the first South Asian country to ratify the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182). Nonetheless, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern in 2009 that many Bangladeshi children continued to work in five of the worst forms of child labour, namely welding, auto workshops, road transport, battery recharging and tobacco factories. The Committee also raised concerns about the lack of mechanisms to enforce child labour laws or monitor working conditions, and insufficient public awareness about the negative effects of child labour.80 75 Preamble to the Constitution of Bangladesh. Article 10 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. 77 Article 14 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. 78 Ministry of Labour and Employment, National Plane of Action for Implementing the National Child Labour Elimination Policy 2012-2016, April 2013, p. 6. 79 Ibid. 80 Ibid 76 23