As someone who is currently establishing a software development office in Bangladesh for a western company this is my perspective on child labor Child labor is

As someone who is currently establishing a software development office in Bangladesh for a western company this is my perspective on child labor Child labor is a long term problem for any country as it keeps kids out of school and locks them in low wage jobs for the rest of their live, meaning less tax revenue for the country. Educating the young generation is an investment in the future that brings more sophisticated work and higher wage jobs. Very Simple. In Bangladesh underemployment among healthy adults is so widespread that child labor can only be ascribed to bad governance. Clearly the government, if it cared about future growth and wealth in the country, should create a scheme allowing children to learn and healthy adults to work. Simply banning child labor is not enough as this story so clearly explains. The family needs the money, and doesn't have idle healthy adults who could could replace meem's income. Some fairly sophisticated scheme is required for this to work. Call it wealth distribution, social security or whatever. Currently the government is not able to provide such a scheme and as a result the country will develop much slower than it could otherwise.