“Could you exchange a day with me with your own child working in my place? Could you deposit your child to labor for 12 hours in such a place for a day to get $1? If you can’t, can you please do something for us?†Frequently confronted with these questions from young children who are forced into unimaginable working conditions in Bangladesh from very early ages, I was compelled to document this child labor situation in a photographic series that I call ‘Angels in Hell’. I started photographing these working children’s lives 10 years ago as a photojournalist. At first I felt helpless and I realized that just “wishing to help†was not enough. Telling ourselves that the problem is insurmountable is an excuse. Shame is an insufficient word to describe how we feel by overlooking this atrocity. I am determined to find a way to bring positive changes to the lives of these abused children whom I have been photographing. According to UNICEF, more than 7.4 million children are engaged in economic activity in Bangladesh. Many of them work in very poor conditions; some even risk their lives. Factory owners pay them about 400 to 700 taka (6 to 10 US dollars) a month, while an adult worker earns up to 5,000 taka per month. Child labour has been forbidden in Bangladesh since 1992.It is widely known, yet for a long time nobody seemed to mind. With my work I want to confront people with the issue - Bangladeshis as well as people in the West where products produced by children are sold.
