Second grader Mim goes to the local school regularly but often she has to leave it even before her classes end as it is time to catch shrimp fries in high tide of the high current River Baleshwar at Sarankhola in Bagerhat, a costal district.

Mim Akter said she had thus to support her fisherman father Milon Mollah as did thousands other children in the coastal region to back their respective families financially.

‘I regularly go to school in the morning and come back before the high tide,’ said seven-year-old Mim while she, with the help of her three-grader cousin Fatima, was catching shrimp fry from the river frequented by crocodiles.

Mim’s mother Nargis Begum said that all the students of the 109 No Dakkhin Kuriakhali Government Primary School leave the school during high tide for netting fries.

For years, children of the area have to help their families by catching fries amid many deadly incidents of drowning and being taken away by crocodiles.

Nargis said that Mim and Fatima would jointly pull the 12 square feet net from the river’s shoreline as they were too small to do it singlehandedly and she would separate the fries from other fishes to sell them at the nearby Bashonkhola Bazar.

They earn more during the peak season (March to June) when she sells them at Tk 1 per piece in the local market.

‘We three earn on an average Tk 150 a day,’ said Nargis.

Mim’s father Milon Mollah, a contract fisherman, said he earned daily Tk 200 on an average after paying the local money lander for his boat and net.

‘I cannot maintain my four-member family with my own earning,’ he said.

Besides Mim and Fatima, Shimul Peda, Salah Uddin Khan, Sujon Talukder, Morium, all students of the same primary school, come from fishing families and catch fries from the river.

Child rights activists say that hundreds of thousands of children living in the costal districts including Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Feni, Chandpur, Borguna, Barisal, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Bhola, Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong are involved in fishing to support their families.

Child rights activist Md Shahidul Islam, also the executive director of Voice of South Bangladesh, however, said that not only poverty, but also the high demand for shrimp fries and lax monitoring were responsible for such a large number of children being engaged in labour.

Shrimp Research Institute chief scientific officer, Khan Kamal Uddin Ahmed, said that the shrimp enclosure owners were facing acute crisis of fries as only 17 government hatcheries, out of 57, were in operation.

He said the hatcheries could supply 10-12 crore fries against the demand for 600 crore Galda fry every year.

The rest of the demand has to be met from natural sources, which is illegal.

Bagerhat district fisheries officer Zia Haider Chowdhury said that the hatchery owners lost their interest in fry production as they could not make it profitable.

Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association senior vice-president Kazi Belayet Hossain said that frozen fish export is based on shrimp industry, the 6th highest export-oriented sector of the country, which contributes 3.65 per cent to the total GDP.

‘In 2016-17 FY shrimp worth Tk 3,568 crore was exported from the country,’ he said.

Southkhali Union Parishad chairman Mozammel Hossain said that the government was providing 40kg rice per month during ban of ‘jatka’ fishing for each of the registered fishermen but there was no such incentive for those who collected fries.

Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum director Abdus Shahid Mahmud said child labour in underwater activities was banned in Bangladesh.

He asked the government to make a fresh list of the children and their families to bring them under social safety net.

To achieve SDGs, the government should stop the child labour immediately, he said.

Sarankhola Matsha Cashi Samiti general secretary Kamruzzaman Bulbul said that some shrimp farmers even bought the fry collected from natural resources considering its quality.

Shrimp and prawn production in the rivers was reducing alarmingly as the fry collection continued,’ said fisherman Mizan Bepary demanding that the government should protect fries like ‘jatka’.