65. The BNHRC also takes into consideration that awareness regarding the prohibitions about not employing children aged less than 14 years in any type of work and children aged 15-18 years in hazardous forms of work was very high amongst the care-takers segment, but extremely low amongst child labourers and their parents/guardians. Employers have a higher tendency to employ children aged less than 14 years while the propensity of employing children aged between 15-18 years was higher in rural areas.85 66. The BNHRC recommends that the GoB should ratify the ILO Minimum Age Convention No. 138 according to the Committee’s recommendation in its earlier Concluding Observations. Implementation of ‘minimum age’ can be a threshold for eradication of child labour in the country. In its considered view, the GoB should positively take all possible measures, legislative, administrative and others as soon as possible. 67. HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT The BNHRC remains very critical of the provisions of the Labour Act 2006 regarding working hours of the children. Generally, no child worker should be allowed to work more than 7 hours per day and 42 hours per week under law. However, the BNHRC positively notes that the Labour Act 2006 provides that no child worker is expected to work more than 5 hours per day and 30 hours per week in any factory or mine. The weekly working hour including overtime should not exceed 36 hours for factory or mines, and 48 hours for other establishments. Moreover, law prohibits a child worker to work between 7.00 pm to 7.00 am. The Labour Act 2006 also provides that no child worker should be appointed to do hazardous work and also operate machines unless they have been informed of the safety measure, danger of the machine or given training for that purpose. 68. The BNHRC notes that the number of working hours increases only marginally with age. Working children aged between 5-14 tend to work an average of 24 hours a week with boys working more than girls (25.7 vs. 19.7 hours).86 Most working children cannot afford the time to attend regular schooling 23 per cent of children (22 per cent of females and 24 per cent of males) aged 6-10 years of age were not in school. The Net Attendance Rate for Secondary Education was only 54.3 per cent. Working children were employed on average for eight to twelve hours per day. Due to a lack of access to education, children have become trapped in low-skilled, low-income jobs, which further pushed them into the vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty.87 Among children aged 5-14, economically active children were less likely to attend school compared to non-working children (45.6 vs. 88.4 per cent). In the age group 5 to 9 only 39.7 per cent of economically active children attended school. Almost all child domestic workers worked seven days per week and 90 per cent slept at their employer’s home, meaning that they were completely dependent on their employers and often suffered restrictions on their mobility and freedom.88 Since domestic workers are excluded from the definition of ‘worker’ in the Labour Act, they do not get any of the benefits regarding minimum age, working hours, etc. under the Labour Act and are often made to work for 18 hours a day. In a judgment delivered in 2011, the High Court Division directed the Government to include domestic workers in the definition of ‘worker’ in the Labour Act but the GoB has not taken any action yet.89 85 Ibid, 86 at pp. 33-59. See Bangladesh Child Labour Data Country Brief, available at <http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/download.do?type=document&id=7790> last visited on 30 September 2014. 87 UNICEF, FACTSHEET: Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Working Children, September 2013, p. 1. 88 Ibid. 89 Writ Petition No. 3598 of 2010 25