How can the voices of children employed in the worst forms of child labour in Bangladesh influence the development of effective child labour policy?

根据劳工组织的估计，全世界有2.18亿5至17岁的儿童在就业。发展中国家所有部门就业的基本最低年龄是14岁，从事危险工作的最低年龄提高到18岁。国际劳工组织将童工定义为“在精神上、身体上、社会上或道德上对儿童构成危险和伤害”，并阻碍儿童教育。“最恶劣形式的童工”包括奴役、贩运、强迫劳动、性工作和参与毒品贩运等犯罪活动。在孟加拉国，120万儿童从事最恶劣形式的童工。童工被认为是南方的一个问题，不利于发展，是教育的障碍，使儿童受到一系列伤害。童工的前景被理解为儿童被父母辜负，没有中介机构，他们的情况受到贫困的支配。童工是在1989年《联合国儿童权利公约》所界定的儿童权利的框架内理解的，该公约赋予儿童儿童期、初等教育、健康、法律规定的公平待遇以及就影响其生活的问题发表意见的权利。对童工问题的政策对策是有效消除童工现象，当务之急是通过多部门打击贩运方案消除最恶劣形式的童工现象。公司社会责任方案执行道德准则，将童工从供应链中消除。从2008年到2012年，童工减少了4700万。从2012年到2016年，这一数字仅下降了1600万。国际劳工组织预计，按照这样的减少速度，到2025年，将有1.21亿童工。国际劳工组织等国际机构制定的童工政策正在让儿童失望。这些政策没有建立在发达的自由和剥削理论的基础上。它们依赖于对童年的普遍定义，这种定义限制了年轻人锻炼身体的空间，是在没有儿童参与的情况下发展起来的。这个博士项目是一项以儿童为中心的关于童工的调查。它旨在了解孟加拉国城市贫困儿童如何理解胁迫、同意、自由、剥削和体面工作等概念，以及他们对这些概念在国际劳工组织等国际机构运作中的霸权表述的理解告诉我们什么。它将填补一些研究空白，并有可能对政策产生影响。作为一项以儿童为中心的童工调查，它将产生关于儿童如何在他们参与劳动力市场的过程中发挥作用的知识。它还将围绕构建儿童劳动经验的关键概念发展基础理论。这反过来又将挑战主要童工办法中固有的对儿童参与的抵制，并有助于形成一种关于童工的儿童理论，这是对政策制定的一种新的、可能产生影响的贡献。博士学位是由英国国际发展部资助的一个规模大得多的项目，该项目的重点是对童工政策的制定产生有意义的影响，解决儿童贫困和现代奴隶制的驱动因素：以儿童为中心的方法，为关键利益攸关方提供明确的调查结果途径。国际发展部资助的由学术机构和非政府组织组成的方案联盟由发展研究所领导。与联盟项目团队成员的合作对于博士学位的交付以及提供丰富的跨学科工作至关重要。博士学位的数据收集包括在南亚进行一段时间的海外实地研究，与核心交付伙伴合作，促进与达卡预先选择的贫民窟地区的儿童和家庭的水平。需要进行高难度的语言培训，才能使博士生掌握孟加拉的技能。

According to ILO estimates, 218 million children aged between 5 and 17 are in employment worldwide. The basic minimum age for employment in all sectors in developing countries is 14, rising to 18 for hazardous work. The ILO defines child labour as "mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children," and an impediment to children's education. A further classification, "the worst forms of child labour" includes slavery, trafficking, forced labour, sex work, and involvement in criminal activity such as drug trafficking. In Bangladesh, 1.2 million children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour. Child labour is understood to be an issue of the South, anti-developmental, a barrier to education which places children in the way of a range of harms. The landscape of child labour is understood as one in which children are failed by their parents, have no agency, and whose circumstances are governed by poverty. Child labour is understood within the framework of children's rights as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989 which confer on children rights to a childhood, primary education, health, fair treatment under the law, and the right to express their opinions on issues affecting their lives. The policy response to child labour is for its effective elimination, the urgent priority being for the eradication of the worst forms of child labour through multi-sectoral anti-trafficking programmes. Corporate Social Responsibility programmes enforce ethical codes to eliminate child labour from supply chains.From 2008 to 2012, child labour reduced by 47 million. From 2012 to 2016, it fell by only 16 million. The ILO projects that at that reduction rate, there will be 121 million in child labour in 2025.Child labour policies developed by international institutions such as the ILO are failing children. Those policies are not grounded in a developed theory of freedom and exploitation. They rely on a universal definition of childhood which limits space for young people to exercise agency and were developed without the participation of children. This PhD project is a child-centred investigation into child labour. It aims to find out how poor children in urban Bangladesh understand concepts such as coercion, consent, freedom, exploitation and decent work, and what their understandings tell us about hegemonic articulations of the concepts in the operation of international institutions like the ILO. It will fill a number of research gaps and has the potential to impact upon policy. As a child-centred investigation of child labour, it will produce knowledge about how children exert agency in their engagement with labour markets. It will also develop ground-up theory around key concepts structuring children's experience of labour. This, in turn, will challenge resistance to child participation inherent in dominant approaches to child labour and facilitate the production of a children's theory around child labour, which is a novel and potentially impactful contribution to policy making. The PhD is nested within a much larger, DFID-funded programme that centres on achieving meaningful impact on child labour policy-making, Tackling the Drivers of Child Poverty and Modern Slavery: A child-centred approach, providing clear pathways for the findings to reach key stakeholders. The DfID-funded programme consortium of academic institutions and I/NGOs is led by the Institute of Development Studies. Collaboration with consortium project team members is essential to the delivery of the PhD, as well as offering the enrichment of interdisciplinary work. Data collection for the PhD involves periods of overseas field research in South Asia, collaborating with the core delivery partner facilitating the PAR with children and families in pre-selected slum areas in Dhaka. Difficult language training is required to equip the PhD candidate with skills in Bangla.