NGO News Report :: Following the National Labour Policy, using kids from 5 to 14 years in any work is a punishable offence, but the Policy appears inactive for tobacco farming, and children, between 10 to 13 years old, are seen planting toxic tobacco plant on the farmlands of Daktarghata village under Kachhapia union of Ramu upzilla, Cox’sBazar, reads a report on The Daily Prothom Alo on February 12, 2015. Majority of the kids are poverty stricken and are to work on the tobacco fields to support family income. They are to work from 6.00am to 3.00pm, but are ill paid and five to six times less than adult labours’ rate. Adjacent villages are following the same trend of child labour. When asked about the child labour, local farmers replied that they are using kids for the lack of adult workers.
The UP member of Garjania Union Parishad said that children mostly engage into tobacco planting because of their poverty and even they miss their classes too. He also said that the guardians do not bother about the issue and many of the females and kids are getting affected with different diseases. The local agro-office is trying to prevent tobacco farming in the locality in different ways and continued their monitoring. It is reported that about 12,000 acres of lands have been used in Cox’sBazar, Ramu, Chakaria, Alikadam and the other surrounding areas and about 60,000 people are involved in the farming process and 20,000 of them are children. Even the doctors are on the view that labours engaged into tobacco farming may experience different diseases like cancer, bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory disorders, reads the report.
The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/article/449521/%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%A3%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95
Birds leaving nest for tobacco
Earlier, different types of birds used to visit the paddy field in Khagrachharhi district for hunting insects and left over paddies but they rarely appear on the areas as the paddy fields have turned into tobacco plantations, reads another report on The Daily Prothom Alo. Birds usually avoid tobacco fields and environment pollutions for using chemical insecticides on the fields have taken the birds to a fictional level. Birds are only seen in places where tobacco is not grown. Experts are on the view that for the rampant tobacco cultivation on the district, the birds will be extinct some day and the environmental balance will be destroyed too.
The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/article/449473/%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A0%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%96%E0%A6%BF–
