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An Act to regulate the employment of children in certain industrial employments;
It is hereby enacted a follows :-
1. Short title and extent.
(1) This Act may be called the Employment to the Children Act, 1938.
(2) It extends to the whole of Bangladesh.
2. Definitions. In this Act -
Note: Clauses (b), (c) and (d) added by the Employment of Children (Amdt.) Act, 1939 and clause (bb) inserted by the Employment of Children (Amdt.) Act, 1951.
3. Prohibition of employment of children in certain occupations.
(1) No child who has not completed his fifteenth year shall be employed or permitted to work in any occupation -
(2) No child who has completed his fifteenth year but has not completed his seventeenth year shall be employed or permitted to work in any occupation referred to in sub-section (1), unless the period of work of such child for any day are so fixed as to allow an interval of rest twelve consecutive hours which shall include at least such seven consecutive hours between 10 p. m and 7 a.m. as may be prescribed :
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to any child referred to here in while employed or permitted to work in such circumstances and in accordance with such conditions as may be prescribed in any occupation aforesaid either as an apprentice or for the purpose of receiving vocational training therein.
Provided further that the competent authority may, where it is of opinion that an emergency has arisen and, the public interest so requires, by notification in the official Gazette, declare that the provisions of this sub-section shall not be in operation for such period as may be specified in the notification.
(3) No child who has not completed his twelfth year shall be employed that a nothing in this sub-section shall apply to any workshop where in any of the processes set forth in the Schedule is carried on :
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to any workshop where in any process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of his family and without employing hired labour or to any school established by, or receiving assistance or recognition from, Government.
3A. Power to amend the Schedule. The Government, after giving, by notification in the official Gazette, not less three months' notice of its intention so to do, may, by like notification, add any description of process to the Schedule, and there up on the Schedule shall have force in Bangladesh as if it has been enacted accordingly.
3B. Notice to Inspector before carrying on work in certain processes.
Before work in any of the processes set forth in the Schedule is carried on in any workshop after the 1st day of October, 1939, the occupier shall send to the Inspector, within whose local limits the workshop is situated, a written notice containing:
3C. Disputes as to age. If any question arises between an Inspector and an employer as to whether any child has not completed his twelfth or fifteenth year, as the case may be, the question shall , in the absence of a certificate as to the age of such child, granted by a prescribed medical authority, be referred by the Inspector for decision to the prescribed medical authority.
Note: Section 3A, 3B and 3C inserted by the Employment of Children Act, 1939.
3D. Maintenance of register. There shall be maintained by every employer, in respect of children employed or permitted to work in pursuance of sub-section (2) of section 3 in any occupation referred to in sub-section (1) of that section, a register to be a available for inspection by an Inspector at all times during working hours or when working is being carried on in any such occupation, showing:
Note: Sections 3D and 3E inserted by the Employed of Children (Amendment) Act, 1951.
3E. Display of notice containing abstract of sections 3 and 4. [ The railway] administration and every port authority shall cause to be displayed in a conspicuous and accessible place at every station on the railway or with in the limits of the port, as the case may be, a notice in such language as may be prescribed and in (Bengali ] containing an abstract of sub- sections, (I) and (2) of section 3 and section 4 of this Act..
4. Penalty. Whoever:
Note: Section 4 substituted by the Employment of Children (Amdt.) Act, 1951.
5. Procedure relating to offences.
(1) No prosecution under this Act shall be instituted except by or with the previous sanction of an inspector appointed under section A.
(2) Every certificate as to the age of a child which has been granted by a prescribed medical authority shall, for the purposes to this Act, be conclusive evidence as to the age of the child to whom it relates.
(3) No Court inferior to that of a Magistrate of the first class shall be try any offence under this Act.
6. Appointed of Inspectors. The competent authority may appoint persons to be Inspectors for the purpose of securing compliance with the provisions of this Act. and any Inspector so appointed shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code (XLI of 1860)
7. Power to make rules. (1) The competent authority may, by notification in the official Gazette and subject to the condition of previous publication make rules for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act.
(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the fore going power, such rules may -
THE SCHEDULE
(See sections 3,3A and 3B)
List of Processes
1. Bidi-making.
2. Carpet-weaving.
3. Cement manufacture, including bagging of cement.
4. Cloth- printing, dying weaving.
5. Manufacture of matches, explosives and firework.
6. Mica-cutting and splitting.
7. Shellac manufacture.
8. Soap manufacture.
9. Tanning.
10. Wool cleaning.
Note: Clauses (e) to (g) added by the employment of Children (Amdt.) Act, 1951 and Schedule added by Act XV of 1939.
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