Child Labour: 10-Year-Old Workers at Bangladesh Balloon Factory
By Amanda Stringfellow @amanda_l_s
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The children are seen sitting sorting balloons on the dusty floor and carrying heavy loads around the factory.
The child workers at the factory in Dhaka earn between $10-25 USD per month depending on experience - working from 6am to 5pm everyday.
Poverty leads many families in Bangladesh to send their children to work and their earnings are given directly to the child’s parents by the factory manager.
Apu, 12, a labourer in one of the factories, said: "My father left me and my mum when I was five.
"My mother takes care of me since then. Now I am working to help my mother.”
The child domestic workers are often the lowest paid in the society
Ruma, 11, who works in the balloon factory said: "I don't like to study. My father is a daily wage labourer but his earnings are not enough for us.
"I am helping them financially by working in here.”
Owner Mr Zakir Hossain established the balloon factory with the help of his wife and eldest son.
He now employs child labourers but says they are treated well at the factory.
Mr Hossain said: "In my factory all children labour like my son does, I give the same opportunity to all of them.
“They work here to help their families' lives, but in my mind I think they are children of other parents like me. I wish they will be educated in future and become self dependent."
Mr Hossain's wife Beauty added: "If we didn't give the opportunity for children to work here, they would be thieving or snatching - here it is better and the children’s families feel safe."
Photographer Zakir Chowdhury captured these images to provide an insight into the world of child labour in the country.
He said: “Irrespective of their gender, child domestic workers carry out all sorts of household work.
"Boys often perform tasks like going to the grocery, cleaning the drain, talking the garbage to roadside bins, washing the car and selling nuts.
“On the other hand girls have to iron the cloths, make phone calls and serve the guests. In most of the cases, they hand over all their earnings to their parents, leaving nothing for themselves.
“In Bangladesh there are nearly five million children between the age of 5 and 14 working in hazardous conditions in factories, garages and homes, in railway stations and markets, in small foundries - many for little or no pay at all.
“Many boys and girls who work do not have access to education and become trapped in low-skilled, low-pay work that further binds them into the cycle of poverty.”