Since November 2000, a special ILO programme has received Dutch financial support to address hazardous child labour in the urban informal sector of the city of Dhaka.

The objectives of the ILO time-bound programme for the elimination of child labour in the urban informal sector are to:

• Reduce hazardous child labour in the urban informal sector of the city of Dhaka through the provision of viable and sustainable alternatives for the families, and the removal of 20,000 children from work;

• Strengthen the capacity of national partners to prevent and progressively eliminate child labour.

Awareness on a new international human rights instrument, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention - No. 182, is growing in Bangladesh. This Convention targets such practices as child slavery, forced labour, trafficking, debt bondage, serfdom, prostitution, pornography and various forms of hazardous and exploitative work.