Child Rights: An Enabling or Disabling Right? The Nexus between Child Labor and Poverty in Bangladesh

Abstract

The research reported in this article demonstrates the centrality of poverty and the structures of political economy to the prevalence of child labor in Bangladesh. This article examines the context of child laborers in Bangladesh and challenges the uncritical application of the social and cultural rights discourse to conditions where poverty and economic injustice are endemic. The authors argue the current preoccupation in development circles with cultural rights tends to disregard the fact that the economic rights of families and communities are denied, and there is a concomitant negation of the importance of poverty, material deprivation and class structures. This article indicates that the gap between the child rights discourse and poverty hampers the efforts to eradicate child labor in any comprehensive manner.