CHILD labour in urban Bangladesh is no longer only a poverty issue. It is a systems failure that we continue to normalise. Despite decades of intervention, 1.78 million children remain engaged in child labour, with more than a million in hazardous conditions. In cities such as Dhaka and Gazipur, this reality is not hidden. It exists in plain sight, woven into the informal economy that sustains urban life. Yet, our responses remain fragmented, often addressing symptoms rather than the structures that sustain it.
From my experience working in urban communities, one truth stands out: removing a child from labour is not a single intervention; it is a negotiation with poverty, vulnerability and deeply entrenched survival strategies. Families do not send children to work out of choice. They do so because urban systems fail to provide viable alternatives. Without income security, accessible education and responsive social protection, child labour becomes a coping mechanism rather than an exception.
However, there are lessons emerging from the field that challenge this cycle. A coordinated, multi-layered approach can significantly reduce child labour when it addresses the interconnected realities that push children into work. Child labour does not exist in isolation. It is deeply linked with household poverty, exclusion from education, weak social protection systems, unsafe urban environments and the absence of sustainable livelihood opportunities for families. Addressing only the child while ignoring the ecosystem around them rarely leads to a lasting change.
Such an approach led to the withdrawal of 1,397 children from labour in selected urban wards of Dhaka and Gazipur through interventions led by international development organisation World Vision Bangladesh in 2025. But the real insight lies not in the number; it is in how this was achieved.
First, child labour was not treated as a standalone issue. It was addressed alongside livelihood, education, health and social protection. Families received alternative income opportunities, reducing their dependence on child earnings. Children were re-integrated into formal and non-formal education systems, while older adolescents were connected to vocational pathways.
Second, local systems were activated. Community-based monitoring, engagement with local administration and multi-stakeholder coordination created shared accountability, something often missing in urban governance.
Third, the approach acknowledged a critical reality. Withdrawal is only the beginning. Without sustained support, children remain at high risk of returning to labour, especially in the face of economic shocks.
These insights point to a larger conclusion: urban child labour cannot be eliminated through isolated projects only. It requires a systemic alignment. Bangladesh has made strong policy commitments to end child labour. But in rapidly urbanising contexts, where poverty and migration are everyday realities, the implementation of those policies must evolve with time. Urban poverty is fluid, informal and often invisible to traditional safety nets. If systems do not adapt, children will continue to fall through the cracks.
So, what needs to change? Policy and practice must now move decisively towards integrated urban strategies that connect child protection with livelihood and social protection. Robust city-level coordination is critical to enforce accountability across sectors. Crucially, prevention must take precedence alongside withdrawal. Research and field experience make it clear that preventing child labour is significantly more effective than attempting to reverse it after the fact.
Experiences from urban programming initiatives demonstrate that meaningful progress is possible when interventions are sustained, coordinated, and community-driven. Yet, these efforts also raise a deeper question: whether current initiatives are robust enough to be scaled and institutionalised in ways that ensure that children remain out of labour not just temporarily, but permanently.
Because the risk is real. A single economic shock — a lost job, a health crisis, or the death of a parent — can push a child back into work overnight. Ending child labour will require more than policy statements or public commitments. It demands an honest reckoning with the scale of the challenge. The solutions are neither unknown nor unattainable. The real gap lies in the commitment to scale, sustain and systematically integrate them into urban systems.
But, perhaps, the deeper challenge is not technical; it is political and institutional will. Until child protection is treated as a core urban development priority, on par with infrastructure, employment and economic planning, efforts will continue to remain fragmented. Real changes will come only when protecting children is no longer seen as an intervention, but as a non-negotiable part of how cities are governed and how development is defined.
Without this shift, progress will remain fragile. With it, there is a real opportunity to move beyond statistics and secure a future where no child is compelled to sacrifice their childhood for survival — where childhood is protected not by chance, but by design.
Because the urban Bangladesh that we dream of will not be defined only by rising skylines or economic growth, but by whether every child is finally free to live, learn and dream as a child should.
Nabila Khan ([email protected]) is an urban research, innovation and knowledge management specialist at the World Vision Bangladesh.
