There are 70 million children in Bangladesh, Lundbak says, of which seven million need to work on a regular basis. “In that sense, the support that the NGOs are providing is a drop in the ocean. We think this should be the business of regular banks.”
As yet, it is unclear whether the government will respond to the calls, but the benefits to the children seem easy to discern.
“When they start depositing money, they start planning for the future,” says Alam.
The scheme allows the children a degree of security and many of them invest their earnings once they have saved a sufficient amount.
“Some of them have bought cows for their parents who live outside Dhaka. Others are paying for education for their younger brother and sisters,” he says. “They feel more confident because they have money to deal with their problems.”
Video produced by Salman Saeed
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