The diversity of children's work and life across the world has generated intense debates on the socio-legal status of working children, particularly in countries of the South. Official legal systems often accord little recognition to working children, while in practice they encompass a distinct yet complex entity. This article examines the tensions between official international and national laws and the actual reality or ‘living laws’ regarding working children in Bangladesh in a wider interdisciplinary context. While these children are mainly so impoverished that they have to work for their own survival, to deny them any agency in negotiating their position seems misguided. Thus it is argued that the present dominant understanding of child work is not compatible with the real life situations of such children and is, in fact, injurious to their individual interests. The article suggests that a culture-specific analysis which properly diagnoses the contextual struggles of working children in countries like Bangladesh is better suited to minimising the ongoing suffering of working children.
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