e_Paper, Tuesday, December 13, 2016

News 3
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016
CHILD LABOUR IN SYLHET STONE QUARRIES
When education becomes a luxury
DT
• Mohammad Jamil Khan, back
from Sylhet
At the beginning of every year, the
atmosphere in the primary schools
of Sylhet’s Gowainghat upazila is
the same as schools in the rest of
the country: crowded with children
who are excited about starting
a new school year and getting new
books.
But as the year progresses, the
situation changes in all 124 primary
schools of Gowainghat; the classrooms
lie empty, the teachers have
no pupils to teach.
The students who should have
been in school are found working
diligently in the stone quarries.
“In Jaflong, no less than 70-80%
of the students who enrol in school
stop going to classes to work, particularly
in winter,” said Mahfuzur
Rahman, headmaster of Ballapunji
Government Primary School. “They
are mainly found collecting and extracting
stones in the Piyan River.”
“We frequently visit our students’
houses to bring them back
to the classroom, they rarely come
back as most of them work for the
stone quarries,” said Nurun Nahar,
associate teacher at Ballapunji
Government Primary School.
“The majority of the absentee
students turn up for the final exams,
but it is not much of an improvement
as they barely pass the
exams,” she added.
However, while the absence rate
is extremely high, the drop out rate
is impressively low.
The official student drop out
rate at primary schools varies between
9% and 11%, which usually
rises in Classes IV and V, according
to Gowainghat Education Office.
The readmission rate in the same
class varies between 4% and 6%.
Students make sure that they
are enrolled in school by making
sporadic appearances throughout
the year and appearing in the exams,
but most of the time they are
absent, said several school sources.
Poverty is the biggest reason
behind this alarming trend, said
Shahid Miah, education officer in
Gowainghat.
“To support their impoverished
families, these children stop going
to school and start working,” he
told the Dhaka Tribune. “We are
working to raise awareness in this
regard; we have been meeting with
their mothers to make them understand
the importance of being regular
in school.”
The situation has started to improve,
he said. “Students are slowly
coming back. We are hopeful that it
will gradually become even better.”
‘Poverty makes us illiterate’
This correspondent went to Jaflong,
Bisanakandi and Bholaganj –
three border areas in Sylhet where
the stone quarries are located – last
week on a visit arranged by Bangladesh
Shishu Adhikar Forum and
funded by Terre des Hommes, an
international child relief agency.
Most of the children that this
correspondent saw working at the
stone quarries or in the rivers collecting
and extracting stones were
aged between 8 and 16 years. Most
of them were seen working with
their parents.
Kamrun Nahar is one such parent.
Her nine-year-old daughter
Shila was working with her near
Piyan River when this reporter approached
them.
Asked why she was keeping her
daughter from school, Kamrun Nahar
snapped at this reporter. “Will
school put food in our belly? If we
do not work, we will have to go to
sleep with an empty stomach.”
Shila wants to go to school, but
she understands that she has no
option. “I go to school once a week,
sometimes once in two weeks –
whenever we have some money
saved up so we can take a break
from working. I cannot go to school
regularly. If I do not work, how will
I eat?” asked the nine-year-old.
SC: Jan 15 deadline for finalising judicial code
• Ashif Islam Shaon
A child worker prepares to dive into the Piyan River in order to extract more stones from the riverbed in Jaflong, Sylhet
MOHAMMAD JAMIL KHAN
The apex court has directed the
government to issue a gazette notification
finalising the rules determining
the discipline and conduct
of lower court judges by January
15, 2017.
The eight member bench of the
Appellate Division headed by Chief
Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha also
fixed that date for further hearing
and orders while holding a hearing
yesterday on the Masdar Hossain
case, widely known as the judiciary
separation case.
Later Attorney General Mahbubey
Alam, who represented the
state at the hearing, told reporters
that they have informed the court
about Sunday’s Law Ministry notification
which says that the president
has decided that there is no need for
a gazette notification on the matter.
“We prayed for two months’
time before the court to settle the
matter. The court granted time till
January 15,” he said.
In the earlier order, the Apex
court had asked the government to
issue the gazette notification and
place it before the court Monday.
Besides, it asked the two secretaries
of Law Ministry – ASSM Zahirul
Haque and Mohammad Shahidul
Haque to appear before the bench.
The two secretaries appeared before
the court yesterday morning.
But the Sunday’s Law Ministry
notification said that there is no
need to publish a gazette notification
on the Disciplinary Rules for
the Judicial Officers and Judicial
Officers Conduct Rules.
During the hearing, the court
asked the attorney general why the
two secretaries have not brought
the gazette notification. As Mahbubey
mentioned the Law Ministry’s
notification, the court asked
him to read it out.
In response the court expressed
dissatisfaction saying the court
had delivered 12-point directives in
the Masdar Hossain case but those
were not fully implemented in the
last 14 years. The government sent
a draft to the court and the court
made some corrections but the final
gazette is yet to be published.
The court said the whole thing
was conveying a wrong message
to the public and lawyers that the
court was behind all of these, which
is not correct. The court just made
some changes to the draft and
asked to publish the final gazette.
The court said, “Do not misunderstand
us. This court handles 80-90%
of government-related cases. We are
not government’s antagonists.”
The apex court said the president
might have been misinformed
about the matter of the gazette. The
Law Ministry officials could not
have done this if they had the minimum
knowledge. The court criticised
the government for seeking
time from the court on several occasions
to issue the gazette and then
saying there is no need for a gazette.
Law and Justice Division Secretary
ASSM Zahirul Haque told the
court they prepared the letter as per
Shila’s situation is what most
children are going through in the region.
In some cases, there are children
who cannot manage to go to
school more than once in a month.
In Bisanakandi, this reporter
met Ashraful, 8, who is a boatman’s
assistant in a tourist boat.
He said his daily earning is Tk50
after he works from dawn to dusk.
“Some days are better when tourists
give me tips,” the child told this
correspondent.
He said he goes to school when
he can save enough money to take
a break from work.
Speaking to numerous child
and adult labourers, this reporter
learned that most of them did not
cross the threshold of primary education.
Assraf Seddiky, assistant professor
at the department of public
administration in Shahjalal University
of Science and Technology,
conducted a study on stone quarry
workers in 2014, where he found
that 58.83% of the workers managed
to study until Class V, while
33.33% were found to be illiterate.
Only 10.84% of the workers
have studied beyond the primary
level, some studying up to Class
VIII. But none of the workers have
gotten to Secondary School Certificate
exams.
“People in this region do not
know better than working at the
stone quarries, because there are no
alternative livelihood options available,”
Assraf told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Unable to pursue education,
they remain detached from the rest
of the country, let alone the world.”
He said the government must
take steps to alleviate this situation,
otherwise it would be extremely
difficult to change these
people’s lives. •
the direction of the President’s Office.
While the court said it did not
want any confrontation with the government,
it pointed out that in the
parliamentary system the president
had no power except appointing the
prime minister and chief justice.
“The president acted as the government
recommended in the file.”
The court said that the gazette is
necessary for the independence of
the judiciary. The control of the judiciary
needs to be in the Supreme
Court’s hand and it cannot be compromised.
The court asked to issue the gazette
by January 15. It said there
was no need to place the rules before
parliament or cabinet. The
government can finalise the rules
through a notification. •