Child laborers’ exposure to neglect in rural Bangladesh: Prevalence and risk factors

Abuse and neglect among child laborers are serious public health concerns. In particular, neglect of child laborers both at home and in the workplace exacerbates their social and health risks. Despite this, the issue continues to be overlooked by researchers and policy makers. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and factors of child labor neglect in rural Bangladesh. Using the snowball sampling method, 200 parents and employers were recruited for this cross-sectional study. We performed a multivariable linear regression analysis using SPSS 28 version. Child laborers are found to be severely neglected, primarily deprived of food and water, and are inadequately supervised. Elements of parental risk, including poor household income (β = 0.07, CI = 0.03, 0.11, p < 0.01) and a history of their own early childhood maltreatment (β = 0.22, CI = 0.07, 0.36, p < 0.01) were identified as significant predictors of neglect among child laborers. Further, child laborers working in agriculture were significantly more likely to experience neglect than those in the domestic sectors.This finding was based on their vulnerable traits, such as working with more than five co-workers (β = 0.08, CI = 0.02, 0.15, p < 0.01), working for extended hours (β = 0.14, CI = 0.01, 0.28, p = 0.04), and suffering from malnutrition (β = 0.30, CI = 0.04, 0.57, p = 0.03). The findings of this study suggest further research on outcome variables are required. Specifically, the study suggests that two intervention strategies could be implemented to alleviate child labor and neglect in Bangladesh, namely financial support programs and amendments to existing policies.