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National law and policies on minimum ages – Bangladesh

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Sources:
3rd and 4th periodic reports combined: CRC/C/BGD/4, 23 October 2008
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.22, 14 March 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.38, 7 December 1995
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 3rd and 4th reports combined
402. Under the existing law, every child must attend school up to Grade V or until the age of 10 years.
312. […] Compulsory Primary Education Law [was enacted] in 1990 (for children aged 6 to 10 years).
From 2nd periodic report
47. Information on the minimum legal age set by national legislation for various purposes is given below.
(a) End of compulsory education - 10 years. The Government is considering raising the age for completion of compulsory education;
234. Primary education was made compulsory for children aged 6 to 10 years by the Compulsory Primary Education Act 1990.
From initial report
127. Basic education in the country consists of five years of primary education followed by five years of secondary education and two years of higher secondary education. 
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 3rd and 4th reports combined
404. Under the Mines (Amendment) Act, 2004 the age of children who can be engaged in mines has been revised from 15 years to 18 years to conform to the CRC. Bangladesh Labour Law, 2006 deals, inter alia, with some prohibitions related to child labour. Hazardous work by a person below 18 is prohibited by this law. [...] For any other (non-hazardous) economic activity, the lower limit of admission into employment is 14 years but with the certification of a registered medical doctor about fitness and age of the child/adolescent. The employer must preserve the certificate; allow her/him to continue on-going education adjusting working hours, ranging from 30 to 42 hours per week (during the day time only meaning restriction of work during 7:00 pm to 7:00 am).
From 2nd report
47. Information on the minimum legal age set by national legislation for various purposes is given below.
(b) Admission to employment - various ages between 12 and 21 years (see article 32).
350. At present, Bangladesh has no national policy on child labour, but ILO is providing support for the formulation of a child labour policy. A draft is expected to be ready by 2001. Existing legislation is antiquated and fragmented and deals only with children working in the formal sector. There is no single code or law dealing with this area. Cooperation between the Ministry of Labour and Employment and ILO-IPEC will include a review of existing child labour laws with a view to removing anomalies, fixing a uniform minimum age for admission to work at 14 years (18 years for hazardous occupations) and prohibiting the employment of children in hazardous operations in shops and other establishments.
351. There are a number of statutes which stipulate the minimum ages at which children can legally work in certain sectors. These are:
   (a) Mines (Mines Act 1923) - 15 years (with medical certificate of fitness);
   (b) Shops and other commercial establishments (Shops and Establishments Act 1965) - 12 years;
   (c) Factories (Factories Act 1965) - 14 years (with medical certificate of fitness);
   (d) Railways and ports (Employment of Children Act 1938) - 15 years;
   (e) Workshops where hazardous work performed (Employment of Children Act 1938) - 12 years;
   (f) Tea gardens (Tea Plantation Labour Ordinance 1962) - 15 years.
353. The Employment of Children Act prohibits children under 12 years from working in workshops where any of a number of listed processes is carried on. Though not explicitly described as such, these processes are all hazardous. They include weaving, tanning and the manufacture of bidi, soap, carpets, matches, explosives or fireworks. However, an important exemption to this prohibition is made in the case of family-owned and family-run workshops not using outside hired labour. The Factories Act prevents children under 18 years from working on dangerous machines without proper instruction about the dangers and necessary precautions, in addition to training or supervision. All forms of forced labour are prohibited under the Constitution. Unlawful compulsory labour is also an offence under the Penal Code 1860.
From initial report
44. The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act of 1933 regards a person below the age of 15 years as being a child. The Employment of Children Act of 1938 prohibits the employment of children of 12 years in regular jobs. It has, however, provided labour by children of 12 years of age by restricting
certain jobs for children over 12 years and again certain jobs between 15 and 17 years. The Bengal Vagrancy Act 1943 considers a person below the age of 14 years as a child.
45. The Factories Act of 1965 defines a child as a person who has not completed 16 years of age. It prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory. The Children's Act of 1974 states that a child is a person below the age of 16 years.
148. According to the Children's Act, children under the age of 15 will not be employed or permitted to work in any occupation connected with (a) transport of passengers, goods or mails by the railway; (b) and handling of goods within the limits of any port. The existing law also bars children below 12 years of age from working in workshops. It does not, however, forbid any child from working as an apprentice or from vocational training. The Act further implies that it does not restrict child employment in agricultural activity or any other light work in the informal sector.
14. The Shops and Establishment Act, 1965 prohibits employment of children not having completed 12 years of age, in shops and commercial establishments. 
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 3rd and 4th reports combined
16. Under the existing law, minimum age of marriage is 18 for females and 21 for males, and there are provisions for punishment of the persons involvement in child marriages.
89. MICS [Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey] 2006 shows that a large proportion of girls are married at an early age. Nationally, about 33 percent of girls aged below 15 years and 74 percent below 18 years are married. In rural areas, the rate was 78.4 percent and in urban areas 65.4 percent. There is regional difference in age of marriage. Among the tribal population, the rate of child marriage is somewhat low (44 percent). There is a negative co-relation between child marriage and educational level and child marriage and economic status.
From 2nd report
47. Information on the minimum legal age set by national legislation for various purposes is given below […] (c) Marriage - 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys under the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, but religious personal laws permit marriage at an earlier age.
From initial report
43. The legal system in the country also makes a distinction between boys and girls in defining a child. This is especially apparent in the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. In this Act the age of majority, defined in terms of contracting a valid marriage, has been placed at 21 years for boys but 18 years for girls.  
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 3rd and 4th reports combined
71. The age of criminal responsibility has been raised to 9 from 7 years (Penal Code Amendment Act, 2004).
From 2nd report
47. Information on the minimum legal age set by national legislation for various purposes is given below.
(h) Criminal responsibility - full criminal responsibility from the age of 12 years; rebuttable presumption of capacity to infringe the criminal law between the age of 7 and 11 years.
312. Under the Penal Code 1860, children in Bangladesh have full criminal responsibility from the age of 12. Regarding children aged 7 to 11 years, there is a rebuttable presumption of capacity to infringe the criminal law, the relevant test being whether a child has "attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge of the nature and consequences" of his or her conduct. Although cases involving children in this age group are rare, the legislature wishes to retain the flexibility to impose criminal responsibility in exceptional cases (taking account of the child's age when deciding on an appropriate sentence).
From initial report
Information unavailable
 
Sources:
3rd and 4th periodic reports combined: CRC/C/BGD/4, 23 October 2008
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.22, 14 March 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.38, 7 December 1995