By Yvonne Koch
Child labor is common in Bangladesh. Our author accompanied a twelve-year-old boy who has to work from morning to evening. And very rarely finds time for something that he should actually be doing every day: going to school.
Razib drags himself tired from the corrugated iron hut to the watering hole. He is barefoot, only wears a cloth around his waist. Razib lives with his parents and his little sister in a slum, a poor settlement, in the middle of the capital Dhaka.
"I start at seven in the morning and then work for an hour at a greengrocer."
. says the twelve-year-old and makes his way to the market.
Once there, he balances fruit boxes on top of each other and layers the vegetables on the counter – sorted by color. Working here is fun, says Razib and smiles – also because the greengrocer and his brother are so nice.
"The greengrocer’s brother has a smartphone on which he can play games and watch films. Sometimes I can watch it."
Six hours a day in "slaughterhouse"
But Razib doesn’t have much time for this, because an hour later he has to be in his second job. He works in a slaughterhouse from eight to two in the afternoon.
The "slaughterhouse" is actually the dusty back yard of a butcher’s shop. Here, a hundred chickens are crammed together in small cages stacked on top of each other.
Razib’s workplace is right next to it, a tiny room with a blue plastic bin and a red stool. He can hardly turn around, it’s so narrow here.
"Most of the time, I have to hold the chickens by the wings and legs while they are being killed. Sometimes I have to do it myself. And then I move the skin and wash the chickens. It’s really not fun for me, sometimes it makes me totally sad, but I have no choice, my family needs the money."
Children under the age of 14 are actually not allowed to work
Child labor is actually prohibited in Bangladesh for children under the age of 14. But a large number of people are bitterly poor and have no alternative. There is particularly a shortage in the country job, therefore more and more people are pushing into the capital Dhaka.
Razib always receives the wages for his work immediately. Today his boss gives him 50 takas, which is about 60 cents. And gives him a little bit of food money.
Street scene in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh (dpa / picture-alliance / Jiji Press / Motoya Taguchi)
Two o’clock in the afternoon: Razib has been on his feet for eight hours, seven of which he has worked. He buys a little rice with vegetables from a street vendor. Then he runs home to rest briefly. In the early evening he starts again. To his next job: driving a rickshaw.
"When it’s just short journeys and I only have one customer and not three at the back, I sometimes enjoy it. But what really annoys me are the customers who change the agreed destination while driving and suddenly want to go somewhere else entirely."
Razib earns the equivalent of 1.80 euros per day
Razib then pulls himself together. Take a deep breath, make a hollow back and get the last one out of his wiry body. And all that to support his family at the end of the day with the equivalent of 1.80 euros.
Except for his little sister, he says that everyone works in his family. His mother is a housemaid in a family, his father works in a restaurant, the older sister is a seamstress in a factory and his big brother is also a rickshaw driver. However, there is not enough money to send Razib to school regularly.
"My brother was at school for two years and he sometimes teaches me to read and write. And very, very rarely, I can make it to school, I have a few books that someone gave me. I am keen to learn something."
"leisure" means to sleep in
He can do arithmetic quite well, Razib explains confidently. For example, when working at the slaughterhouse, he can say how much a chicken weighs and costs. And the twelve-year-old can also calculate exactly when he will be "leisure" can afford. So time when he can do what he wants.
"Then what do I do? Sleep! Just sleep long! And sometimes I even find time to fly kites in a nearby field when my friends are at school. But that only works if there is no work."
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