Angels in hell

“Could you exchange a day with me with your own child working in my place? Could you deposit your child to labor for 12 hours in such a place for a day to get $1? If you can’t, can you please do something for us?”

Frequently confronted with these questions from young children who are forced into unimaginable working conditions in Bangladesh from very early ages.

Down in these deadly factories the word, “childhood” disappears as early as the age of five. Rapid maturity is all that will keep them alive. Their silent cries echo from wall to wall in their Hell which is considered a blessed place for them because they can earn bread. Their compact factory workstations amongst the fiery furnaces or the deafening sewing machines or even on the dusty brick-making fields are places where they are growing up independently.

According to UNICEF, more than 7.4 million children are engaged in economic activity in Bangladesh. Many of them work in very poor conditions; some even risk their lives. Factory owners pay them about 400 to 700 taka (6 to 10 US dollars) a month, while an adult worker earns up to 5,000 taka per month.